The changes in HISD rival some of the most significant shakeups to a public school system ever.
Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles looks toward a group of demonstrators protesting the elimination of some HISD libraries and librarians during an Aug. 10, 2023, school board meeting at the district's headquarters in northwest Houston.We’re testing using AI-powered tools to provide an audio version of this story. While this audio recording is machine-generated, the story was written by human journalists.
The changes in HISD rival some of the most significant shakeups to a public school system ever, yet they’ve received minimal national media attention to date. But in 2019, HISD allowed one campus, Wheatley High School in Greater Fifth Ward, to receive a seventh straight failing grade from the state. Wheatley’s scores triggered a Texas law — authored in 2015 by a Houston-area Democrat fed up with years of poor outcomes at some HISD schools — that gave Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath the right to replace the district’s school board.
The group argued that instilling a “no-excuses” attitude toward student achievement and partially tying teacher pay to test score growth could dramatically improve American education. Miles implemented a similar playbook during his three-year stint leading Dallas ISD, an approach that helped improve student test scores but contributed to a near-doubling of the district’s teacher turnover rate.
“I think you can say pretty clearly that has been working well,” Miles said when the scores came out.But other indicators could spell trouble for Miles’ administration in year two and beyond. They also passed a law that allowed long-struggling campuses to skirt closure by replicating a turnaround plan Miles implemented in Dallas. Participating schools have to provide high levels of feedback on instruction, extend school hours and offer incentives for top-rated teachers and principals.his Houston work is “not a test case” for statewide policy. More recently, however, he alluded to the possibility of his model being implemented more widely.
Kourtney Revels, at center, the mother of a third-grade student at Houston ISD's Elmore Elementary School, confronts district staff limiting public access to a June 2023 school board meeting at HISD headquarters in northwest Houston.Even if HISD produces remarkable gains in the coming years, many elected school boards — which answer directly to local voters, unlike Miles and the state-appointed board — might not stomach upheaval on the level of Houston.
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