HOUSTON – As the school year comes to an end, we can’t help but discuss the plethora of changes across the Houston Independent School District campuses, starting with the appointment of Superintendent Mike Miles.
The Texas Education Agency said its goal was simple, to improve teacher effectiveness and better prepare the kids of HISD for the future.
The problems in the district didn’t go unnoticed as several campuses were “underperforming” for years.
But since the state takeover, has much changed?
KPRC 2 anchor and report Candace Burns and Investigative Digital Specialist Ninfa Saavedra have spent the entire school year at Fleming Middle School, an HISD campus that was labeled as “underperforming”, to see if the district New Education System and all of its changes impacting students, teachers, and the community actually worked.
Under this new system, the principal at Fleming Middle School said he and his administrators are tasked with performing regular on-the-job training and spot observations.
“My expectation is every teacher should receive some type of on-the-spot coaching at least once a day,” Fleming Middle School principal Devin Adams said.
The district’s reasoning? They believe the routine will ensure teachers provide important feedback that will hopefully improve students’ academic performance.
“We step into a classroom for anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. What I’m looking for really is the engagement of the students. I want to hear kids talking. I want to see them engaged. I want to see them writing,” Adams said.
The guidelines provided by the district outline what good teaching should look like, and then, teachers are scored based on how well their classrooms resemble the district’s guide.
“We are looking for the instruction to be aligned to what the lesson objectives should be. If I’m going into a classroom and I see on the board that students should be able to add two-digit numbers, I don’t want to walk into a classroom and see that they are learning about the plot. Teaching them about the plot is not going to help them master adding two-digit numbers,” Adams explained. “However, we do want to make sure that it is not just solely check, check, check, check, because that takes a bit of who the person is, their personality, what they bring to the table, out. It makes them feel like it is a much more rigid, process.”
Adams said the system holds principals and even Superintendent Miles to the same level of accountability.
“One thing that the superintendent has done a really good job of is just the accountability of the quality of instruction that’s happening in the classroom, from the teacher to the leaders on the campus to my leaders. We are all held accountable for the quality of instruction that is happening to the exact same degree and/or standard,” said Adams.
The changes, Adams believes are working and making a huge impact at Fleming’s campus.
“The teachers have come to understand and realize that this is best practice, like best practices all rolled up into a ball. How are you going to take those best practices? Take it upon yourself, make it your own, and then turn it out to the students. The students are seeing a difference,” Adams said.
The evaluations also play a role in how teachers are paid. The district says it plans to have a similar teacher evaluation system in place at all of its campuses by the 2025-2026 school year.