This spring, more than 40 community and business leaders rolled up their sleeves and sat down face-to-face with third graders in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) for tutoring. Now that the state’s annual test is done, DISD officials are praising the work of these volunteer tutors, crediting them with an academic upturn for the students as well as a higher pass rate on the TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) exam.

The Greater Dallas Chamber/DISD TAAS tutoring project paired volunteers from local corporations with students in seven local elementary schools–Richard Lagow, Lorenzo DeZavala, W.W. Bushman, O.M Roberts, Joseph J. McMillan, William B. Miller and Bayles. The schools selected for the project had been teetering on the edge of low performance in past TAAS evaluations.

The volunteers tutored students in subjects such as writing, math and English. The program strengthened student skills on the material that teachers had been teaching all along, as well as bolstered their confidence prior to taking the TAAS.

Third graders statewide took the TAAS test in late April, and the results were released to the DISD last week. Results of the performance of the seven schools in the tutoring project were officially announced at a reception with preliminary measurements showing that the tutoring worked. Individual students who struggled in subjects or had performed poorly on sections of the exam last year have now passed the TAAS.

Chamber and DISD leaders officially saluted these volunteers at a reception on Thursday, May 31 highlighted by remarks from Dr. Mike Moses, DISD superintendent. The improvement follows a trend throughout the DISD in which students district-wide scored better on the TAAS this year than ever.

Special thanks go out to the volunteers and their employers. Businesses with volunteers in the project included Bank One, Tejas Girl Scout Council, State Farm Insurance, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Texas Instruments, ACS and the Bill J. Priest Institute.

The Chamber plans to continue the program. Officials say they expect to start recruiting more volunteers for the program in September. For more information, contact Whitney Williams at wwilliams@dallaschamber.org or 214-746-6741.