Vocabulary strategy boosts student success at Brashear

With guidance from Holdsworth, leaders at Jimmie T. Brashear Elementary in Dallas ISD leveraged a simple, student-centered vocabulary strategy that drove significant academic gains—boosting outcomes for English learners and strengthening campus culture.

Tucked in the heart of Oak Cliff in Dallas, Brashear Elementary greets students each day with warmth and joy.

For Principal Sonja Barnes, education is a calling – a second career that drew her away from the business world so she could help children learn and grow.  

So, it concerned her when she noticed that many of the school’s bilingual students were not where they needed to be with language skills. When her school joined Holdsworth’s Campus Leadership Program in 2022, most of their second grade English learners were scoring in the bottom tiers on their end-of-year assessment.  

As part of the program, she wanted to explore what they could do differently to help those students succeed.  

Spoiler alert:

• By the end of the Holdsworth program, 80% of those second graders had reached the top tier in language.
• All students at Brashear outperformed the district on vocabulary-related STAAR standards, contributing to the campus’s 88 in overall academic achievement.

But the real story lies in how they got there.

A student‑friendly strategy that spread schoolwide

Principal Sonja Barnes credits Holdsworth for investing in people rather than quick fixes. The 2-year leadership development program helped her team identify the root problem and strengthened their capacity to solve it.  

“You can’t have great schools without the adults that are in them,” she said.

Bilingual teacher Keylah Pineda and her colleagues tested several approaches before discovering one that made a clear difference: a TIP chart (Text, Information, Picture) to help them learn vocabulary.  

For each word, students created:

• Their own definition
• A picture
• A movement or gesture to reinforce meaning

Students quickly began using academic vocabulary in conversation and writing. “That’s when we knew it was working,” Pineda said.

What began with a single second-grade class soon expanded across the building.

“Everyone now understands the importance of visuals for second language learners,” Barnes said.

Teachers growing as leaders

The strategy succeeded not only because it was effective, but because Pineda championed it. 

Before Holdsworth, Pineda described herself as quiet and hesitant: “I was just a teacher.” Afterward, she said, “I am a teacher and a leader.” She began leading professional development, coordinating afterschool programs and motivating colleagues to try new instructional approaches.

“I don’t know if she saw the leader in her, but I see it to this day,” Barnes said of Pineda. “She came to Holdsworth with an open mind – ready to learn, ready to grow.”

A campus united around students

As teachers collaborated across grade levels, Brashear moved from working in silos to functioning as a single, cohesive learning community. Teachers visited one another’s classrooms, shared ideas and modeled vulnerability and growth. 

Most importantly, students felt the difference. 

“When you walk into our campus, the first thing you see is happy children,” Barnes said. “You see collaboration, writing and hands-on learning.”  

With the tools and mindsets Brashear leaders picked up on their Holdsworth learning journey, they were able to transform that joy into measurable results for students.  

And Brashear’s success is just one example of what is possible when Texas educators receive the support they deserve. In 2025, 96% of schools who completed Holdsworth’s Campus Leadership Program improved outcomes for underserved students.

“As we were going through the Holdsworth process, we were seeing little gains in the data,” said Jeanine Hill, assistant principal. “The big picture at the end was the STAAR test – the results were just amazing for us. We were really excited about the work we had done and the outcome it yielded.”

Webinar: Leadership Launch

Next month, hear directly from the Brashear team about their success by signing up for our Leadership Launch webinar series.