HOUSTON – The second of a series of meetings discussing the changes at the Houston Independent School District got underway Wednesday.
Since the Texas Education Agency took over the largest school district in Texas earlier this year and appointed superintendent Mike Miles, a slew of changes have been made throughout the district -- most notably, the NES model.
Deemed “Straight from the Source,” the meetings are set to help staff and community members learn more about what’s happening in the district.
Principals from across HISD are supposed to showcase their schools and students, detailing the new strategies they are implementing.
Wednesday’s meeting comes after the district reported an increase in the number of D and F-rated campuses.
Although Miles said the results of the analysis of the 2022-2023 state accountability data weren’t a surprise to him, he said he’s focused on improving the low ratings.
“These of course are unofficial until TEA, if ever, can report it, but they’re accurately based on the raw data, which we have,” Miles said.
Miles said that there are 52 F-rated HISD campuses, 59 schools with D ratings, and 64 with C ratings.
“We have a lot of work to do is the main message,” Miles said during the news conference. “We have a lot of schools that are struggling... We went into this year knowing that we would have a lot of work to do, especially around the quality of instruction, which is the leading indicator of academic achievement and hence accountability.”
KPRC 2′s Candace Burns also spoke to superintendent Miles about classroom timers and the pace of learning at NES schools, a major concern among students, parents, and teachers.
“Every student that I’ve talked to so far they tell me that they are liking school, they like their teachers. But, they are anxious about the timers. In one case a little girl tells me that she cries because she is afraid of failing. Are you going to address those pressures?” Burns asked superintendent Miles.
“I think the teachers and the principals and the people at the school have to really explain the why, and also destress it. You know sometimes kids take their cues from teachers. Teachers have a way of making sense of things. I’ve been in 70 schools and I’ve been doing the NES type model in many of the schools when I was CEO of Third Future Schools for seven years and kids will get used to it. In the 70 NES schools that I have been in, a few of them were non-NES… I’ve been in the Team Center… I’ve seen the DOL’s in every school—and the timer that’s up there and the teacher going around, and I don’t think that’s a general thing that’s happening in the district… if a kid is crying or too stressed out, I don’t see that,” Miles said.
“But, this is something that they are literally telling me that,” Burns said.
“And, I take them at their word that they are feeling some pressure, but overall it doesn’t impact kids negatively…the 10 minute, we are not going to change the 10 minute DOL on the board. It’s a 10 minute DOL. Kids and adults need to learn that there are time limits to certain things. Almost everything in life has at least some level of time committed to it, and if the teachers destress it, and don’t make it a big deal…it won’t be a big deal,” Miles said.
SEE MORE ON HISD AND THE TEA TAKEOVER
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