Bryan Adams High School - History

History

Bryan Adams High School opened in 1957 and was named after William Jennings Bryan Adams, a DISD Board of Education secretary from 1929 until his death in 1955. The building was constructed at a cost of US$2.4 million and was designed by the architectural firm of Goodwin & Cavitt using the same pattern as their building for Thomas Jefferson High School, which opened in 1955. Students and alumni almost always refer to the school as 'Bryan Adams,' or simply by the acronym 'B.A.'

While 'Adams High School' is the name of several high schools throughout the United States, there is only one 'Bryan Adams High School.' It has no connection to Canadian singer Bryan Adams.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Bryan Adams was one of the largest high schools in Texas, graduating more than 1,000 students in each of the years from 1968 to 1972. Since the opening of Conrad High School in 2006, B.A. has seen a noticeable drop in enrollment, dropping to UIL Class 4A for the first time in the 2008 realignment.

On October 6, 2010, the Dallas Independent School District announced that Bryan Adams would be reorganized after receiving the state's lowest rating for two straight years. The reorganization would take place for the 2011-2012 school year in a process known as "reconstitution," according to DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander. State law requires the academic shakeup for campuses that consistently are rated "academically unacceptable." Campus review teams at the schools, consisting of an internal and external member, will review students' performance on the state exam to determine which teachers should leave the schools, Dahlander said. Bryan Adams high school is on the low-performing list for its graduation rate, he said.http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/four-disd-schools-to-be-reorga.html