Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy.
That was the primary takeaway of a presentation delivered by former Dallas Independent School District superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa at the 2022 Scholarship Breakfast, the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s premiere fundraising event.
“You don’t need continuous improvement,” he said. “You need quantum improvement.”
Hinojosa said that the problems he inherited when he took the helm of Dallas ISD – one of the largest being a lack of certified teachers in bilingual classrooms despite a 70% Hispanic district – required a whole new educational model.
“Everybody has to learn English,” he said. “That’s the language of commerce. That’s non-negotiable.”
Hinojosa and his administrative team recruited teachers from all over the Hispanic world, including Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain. No matter what grade they had previously taught, he said, he moved them all to kindergarten and started a dual-language curriculum. They worked their way up to other grades, taking students with them as they advanced in grade level.
“We want you to become biliterate,” he said. “Not bilingual — biliterate, which means you can read and write in two languages … it took us from 2005 to 2022 and now it’s working.”
The sold-out event, held Nov. 15 in the ballroom at the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center, drew 250 attendees, a capacity crowd, and raised more than $92,000. Since its inception in 2009, the Scholarship Breakfast has raised more than $1.1 million. The Beck Group, Lennox International, Merit Energy, VISTRA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Deloitte and Fujitsu were the primary sponsors of this year’s event.
Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School Dean, welcomed the audience and provided an update of the Jindal School. Special guests included Hinojosa’s wife, Kitty and UT Dallas administrators Dr. Richard C. Benson, president; Dr. Kyle Edgington, vice president for development and alumni relations; Dr. Calvin Jamison, vice president for facilities & economic development; and Amanda Rockow, vice president, public affairs.
Pirkul discussed the record student enrollment for fall 2022, now nearly 10,500 students, and gave an update on the school’s latest rankings, which include several in the top 10.
“Good news makes us motivated, keeps us motivated to work even harder,” he said. “So those of you who are alums, your degree gets more valuable by the year or by the week in some cases … Like I said, we have many more rankings, and I can’t go through all of them. Just suffice to say they are continuing our upward trajectory.”
Pirkul introduced Lesly Vazquez, a sophomore accounting major at the Jindal School and a member of the Jindal Young Scholars Program. She, in turn, introduced Hinojosa.
After Hinojosa’s presentation, Jindal Young Scholar Chris Adkins came to the stage to present the guest speaker with a plaque commemorating the establishment of the Michael Hinojosa JYSP Scholarship.
Dr. Diane McNulty, associate dean for external relations, communications and corporate development at the Jindal School, emceed the event.
“I am delighted that we had so many JSOM supporters in attendance this year,” she said. “After the last few difficult years, our students need more financial support than ever before. Our sponsors and donors rose to the occasion yet again. I am grateful to them for stepping up.”
