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The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of a Superintendent: My conversation with Dallas Dance

From classroom teacher to one of the youngest serving school district superintendents in the United States. This two-part episode of The Policy Matters covers the meteoric rise and dramatic fall of former Baltimore County School District Superintendent, Dr. S. Dallas Dance.

Dallas Dance began his education career as a classroom teacher. Prior to his appointment in Baltimore County, Dr. Dance served as one of three chief school officers responsible for the administration of nearly 300 schools in the Houston Independent School District, the 7^th largest school system in the nation.

At the age of 31, Dance was appointed to serve as superintendent of America’s 25^th largest school district. In this episode, Dallas talks about some of the innovations he sought from the get-go. These initiatives included personalized learning through a one-to-one technology initiative, bilingual instruction at the elementary level, and addressing the learning-equity gap.

After 18 months on the job, Baltimore County’s graduation rate increase was the largest single-year gain in four years. Dr. Dance doubled down on preparing students for the global economy with both a digital device and foreign language initiative. In 2013, he stated, “Twenty-seven percent of companies surveyed… say that they are more likely to hire someone who is multilingual, and the reports are when those individuals are multilingual, they earn about 10 percent more.”

Dr. Dance went on to receive many awards and accolades for his work in Baltimore during this time including the following:

Named a Champion of Change by the White House
Appointed to a Commission on Educational Excellence for African-Americans
Named by The Daily Record (MD) as the State’s Top Innovator, Most Influential Marylander, and Most-Admired CEO
National Life Group awarded him the LifeChanger of the Year Award

In 2017, his meteoric rise came to a screeching halt. Dance was convicted of perjury for failing to report outside income while working as a superintendent in Baltimore County.

Today, Dance has returned to the education arena as a leadership and strategy coach, operating the DDance Group. He remains an esteemed public speaker and author publishing two books since 2018. Dr. Dance’s first book is titled Deliberate Excellence: Three Fundamental Strategies That Drive Educational Leadership. His second book released this past June is titled Imploded You-niverse: Thoughts on Fear, Failure & the Pitfalls of Perfection.

You can listen to this two-part podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Want to learn more about Dr. S. Dallas Dance?