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The years ahead Houston ISD starts the 2023-24 school year Aug. 28 under state-appointed leadership, including a new superintendent, Mike Miles. The Texas Education Agency took over the district June 1 as part of an intervention to improve academic outcomes.
June 1
June 2
June 22
Mike Miles rst day on job
Miles announces New Education System • 28 schools identi ed, largely in low-income neighborhoods • All teachers at the schools were made to reapply for their jobs.
HISD adopts budget Miles shifts $106M toward his District 2035 vision, which involves rolling out NES at 150 schools by 2025, including: • $30M from central o ce budget • $50M from vendor contracts • $25M in salary commitments from coronavirus relief funds educator who nished her career as a teacher in charge of libraries at Shearn Elementary School, said librarians serve a vital role in fostering an inter- est in reading among students. Under a recent push, HISD had libraries oper- ating at 90% of its schools in the 2021- 22 school year, up from 48% the year before, she said. “It’s not like we’ve had libraries for 40 years in these schools and it didn’t work,” she said. “Just give it a chance. So many kids become true lovers of reading because of coming into a library.” Miles said the decision to remove librarians and media specialists from NES schools came down to prioritizing limited resources. It is more important to direct resources to the teachers that are teaching students how to read at those schools, Miles said. Miles also said he plans to keep dual language programs at schools that have them, but said teaching children to read and write in English at grade level will be the priority. This has raised con- cerns among Spanish-speaking HISD parents, who said they worried what would happen if Spanish instruction takes a back seat. “With taking away the dual-language program, you’re going to take away that communicative language children have with their parents because most households only speak Spanish,” said Crystal Aguilar, a parent of students at Pugh Elementary School in an inter- view done in Spanish and translated to English. Miles said he aims to extend the NES to 150 of the district’s 274 schools by 2025. After announcing the opportu- nity in June for other HISD schools to voluntarily opt into the system ahead of schedule, principals at 57 more schools opted to operate under the NES in the 2023-24 school year. Few schools in the Bellaire, Meyer- land and West University areas have signed on for the NES. Nearby schools include Fondren Middle School in the Braeburn area.
SOURCES: HOUSTON ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
A New Standard As Houston ISD o cials work to improve state accountability ratings, changes are coming in September to how those ratings are calculated. STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Current: Calculated as a combination of State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test results, graduation rates, and college, career and military readiness, or CCMR, evaluations. Proposed: The “cut score”—the percentage of students who must be deemed ready for college, career or the military for a school or district to be rated an A—will be increased from 60% to 88% . SCHOOL PROGRESS Current: Calculated based on improvements students make on STAAR tests from one year to the next, taking a school’s economically disadvantaged population into account. Proposed: Changes to the CCMR cut score applied to the student achievement rating will also be applied here . CLOSING THE GAPS Current: Students are broken into groups based on race, language and special needs. Groups are measured based on academic achievement, graduation rates, English language pro ciency and CCMR, either being given a 0 for failing or a 1 for passing. Proposed: Instead of rating districts on a 0-1 scale , they will be rated on a 0-4 scale . The changes are meant to help better track growth.
curriculum] and they’ll be set, but it doesn’t work that way in the class- room,” said Alison Chapin, who formerly taught second grade at Scar- borough Elementary School before making the di cult decision to leave the district this summer amid the changes being announced. “The more authentic it is, the better it sticks for kids. Is that going to happen with a scripted curriculum?” A new system The NES was among the rst ini- tiatives announced by Miles during a June 2 news conference, one day after his rst day on the job. Schools that fall within the system will pay teach- ers more, take responsibilities o their plates and use premade lesson plans. The concept was initially going to be rolled out at 28 schools in August. Most of those schools were part of feeder patterns leading up to three high schools that received unaccept- able state accountability ratings during one or more years since 2017: Wheat- ley, Kashmere and North Forest high schools. Wheatley, which received unacceptable performance ratings seven times between the 2010-11 and 2018-19 school year, was speci cally named as one of the reasons for the state intervention by TEA o cials. However, Wheatley was given a pass- ing rating by the TEA for the 2021-22 school year. Teachers at the schools were told they would have to reapply for their jobs, but also that the average teacher salary for those speci c schools was being bumped up to $85,000. Several elements of Miles’ plan for the NES schools raised concerns among community members, includ- ing that librarians would be removed from the campuses and libraries would be converted to Teams Centers, rooms where students will take part in group projects, but also where students who disrupt class would be sent to watch lessons virtually with a learning coach. Lisa Robinson, a retired Houston ISD
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
New Education New Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles announced in June his New Education System at certain schools. HOSPITAL MODEL Teachers will teach using a “hospital model,” where nonclassroom tasks are given to other employees. • Discipline handled by administrators • Lesson plans created by curriculum developers • Papers graded by support personnel PAY FOR PERFORMANCE Teachers will be paid in part based on students scores on state-administered standardized tests. The new model won’t go into e ect until the end of Miles’ second year. TEAM CENTERS Students who are disruptive in the classroom will be sent to separate rooms to watch instruction virtually. ROLLOUT • 85 schools will be included in the initial rollout in fall 2023. • 150 schools will be included by 2025.
audience at a July 20 community event. “This is the last generation of children that will go through pub- lic education before the skills gap is locked in for the next 30 years. That’s my prediction.” So far, Miles’ announced plans include revamping HISD’s special education services and rolling out his New Education System—a classroom style centered on shifting teacher responsibilities at certain schools so they can focus solely on teaching. Later on, he also plans to implement pay-for-performance measures where teacher salaries are informed in part by student test results. Miles’ appointment has not come without controversy. A coalition of teachers, parents, local leaders and public education advocates has formed to call attention to what they see as shortcomings with Miles’ plans, including that instruction would be more scripted and too closely tied to standardized tests. “It sounds like every teacher just needs to read [the scripted
SOURCE: HOUSTON ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
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