HARLINGEN — She’s the best of the best in the Lone Star State.
Irma Davis, principal at Dishman Elementary School, is in the news again. This time, she’s been recognized as the 2020 NAESP National Distinguished Principal for Texas. NAESP stands for National Association of Elementary School Principals.
As always, Davis gave quick references to the teachers and staff at Dishman.
“At Dishman we set a lot of goals and we have met measures that we put into place nine years ago,” she said. “I credit my teachers, my staff for putting in the time and the effort that we required.”
Davis quickly recognized the needs when she came to Dishman and addressed them.
“We committed ourselves that Dishman would get to number one,” she said two years ago. “We teach our children, we don’t teach to a test, we teach and instruct children to their needs. We also committed ourselves to putting Dishman on the map.”
And they did just that two years ago when Dishman was one of 24 schools recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools. The recognition was based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
“Dishman has been prescriptive and strategic to meet student needs and to ensure their academic success,” Davis said.
And so the accolades continued.
Last year she was named principal of the year by the 18th annual H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards in Austin.
“I was super elated, super proud again of everything that we have been able to accomplish,” she said then.
And now, she has something else to be proud of.
“We’re very strategic in what we do to meet the needs of the students,” Davis said, always speaking of the ‘we’ rather than the ‘I’.
“The community embraced us, they understood the work, they supported Dishman,” Davis said. “At the campus level we put many measures into place to ensure that success. We worked with our teachers. Data analysis drives our instruction. So when I say we’re prescriptive, it’s that we’re aware of the needs the children have and then we plan how we are going to target that to get them on level.”
