RISD operates 55 campuses and serves more than 37,000 students. In 2022, the district was given a "B" accountability rating by the Texas Education Agency.
History
The district was founded in 1854. At the time it provided education for children of local farmers, small business owners and settlers around the railroad just outside Dallas, TX. In recent times RISD has been rated as "Recognized" by the Texas Education Agency for many years in a row. RISD is the largest, most racially and socioeconomically diverse district in Texas to receive a rating this high. In 2010 the Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) added 22 RISD schools to the TBEC Honor Roll. RISD and Houston ISD leads the state in schools named to the Honor Roll. Only 252 public schools out of 8,000 in Texas were named to the TBEC Honor Roll, placing those 22 RISD schools in the top 4% of Texas public schools.
KRET-TV (channel 23) was a non-commercial educationaltelevision station which broadcast from 1960 to 1970. It was owned by the school district, and was the first broadcast TV station in the nation to be wholly owned by a school district. The call letters "RET" stood for "Richardson Educational Television".
KRET began broadcasting February 29, 1960, with a broadcast range of about 20 miles (32km); it broadcast only on weekdays eventually matching school hours, and not during the summer. It was actually the first educational television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, signing on about six months before KERA-TV. The studio was first located at Richardson Junior High School from 1960 to 1963, then at Richardson High School from 1963 to 1970. The station was converted on August 31, 1970, into a closed-circuit network named "TAGER". The tower stood on the campus of Richardson High School before being taken down in the mid-2000s, to make room for expansion of the school building. Channel 23 was later reallocated to nearby Garland. The frequency remained dark until 1985 when religious broadcaster KIAB-TV signed on the air. The station was later sold to Univision and became KUVN-TV, the network's O&O for North Texas.
The 1969–1970 Television Factbook/Stations volume listed the following station personnel for KRET-TV:
Lloyd J. Collins – station manager
Jay Garrett – audio tech
Richard F. Hays – director of programming
Bob Ramsey – chief engineer
Demographics
As of the Richardson Independent School District 2020-21 school year, 95.7% of teachers are licensed, and 82.7% have three or more years of experience. The student-to-teacher ratio is lower than the state average, at 13:1. The district has 70 full-time counselors on staff. The student body at the schools served by Richardson Independent School District is 30% White, 22.4% Black, 6.9% Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander, 37.3% Hispanic/Latino, 0.3% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. In addition, 3% of students are two or more races, and 0% have not specified their race or ethnicity.
↑"Arapaho elementary (now closed)". December 10, 2005. Archived from the original on December 10, 2005. Retrieved November 30, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
