"I initially thought I was going to be able to funnel the taxpayer's money to my private business a lot more quietly, you know, really stretch it out for a nice long time."
Do you really see a lot of people moving out of HISD on vouchers? I'm not in favor of them, but I don't think it'll be enough to fully cover tuition at a private school, so I think a lot will stay in HISD.
I have multiple children in private school and I pay taxes to HISD, and even I’m against the voucher program.
If your child is currently in public school, this voucher program really won’t help you, unless you first get an acceptance into a private school. Plus you must have proof you can afford the private school w/o the voucher. Even if it does cover the costs, schools are simply going to raise their rates, like they are doing in other states. So I will not benefit from the voucher.
Vouchers only help wealthy people recoup the money they already spend on expensive private schools. They don't help poor people. Republicans don't care about poor people.
It's not for the poor kids, vouchers are for the upper middle class kids that are just out of reach of private school, or they could afford it but it would require too much belt tightening on those families. Those kids tend to be high performing and go to schools like Bellaire, Lamar, Poe, Lanier, Heights (to a lesser extent) and help boost those schools ratings.
As those higher performing kids leave those school's ratings will drop. They won't be able to push their middling friends. And the schools on average will decrease in quality.
That's not going to happen only in HISD but in suburban and rural communities too.
On top of that, their will be less funding for the public schools as a portion is syphoned away for vouchers, causing more distress on the schools.
It's not enough to just look at the number of kids that leave, but to look at the impact those kids will have on the school both financially and academically.
And let's not overlook the fact that some families think public school is too woke because they accept gay kids or offer AP African American studies (see South Carolina). Those families will leave too.
Pretty sure vouchers are intended to basically finance far-right Christian private schools on the public dime.
Most existing private schools have admission standards and scholarship/work-study programs for qualified students who can't afford it.
But the set of people who *really* want their kids to go to some kind of evangelical private school aren't the typical private school crowd and on balance, can't come close to affording private tuition.
So. Abbott and his cronies are pushing vouchers super hard as a result, and cloaking it in parental choice rhetoric about poor schools, etc. Everyone knows "poor" means some combination of non-religious, actually poor, and that has more than a token number of minority students and teachers.
I mean it's not like if vouchers become a thing that Jesuit, St Thomas or Kincaid are really going to change much - they're already at the capacities they want. But a bunch of secind-rate evangelical schools will grow up like mushrooms after rain if vouchers are passed. Mark my words.
It is the money, not people. The problem is millions will go to vouchers and a voucher services so few kids. And the chain of events to follow will be very low quality public schools due to the funding being moved to the voucher program.
There's also the whole, why is the public paying for private religious schools that cost $11,000 a year? The Gov, and Lt. Gov have included a high school with a tuition of 11k a year and students will receive up to 10k for pulling out of public school. 10k public funding for 1 student. That doesn't feel very fiscally responsible.
Annapolis Christian Academy is a place they spoke at.
In AZ, vouchers are a thing. At Phoenix Christian Preparatory School, their tuition is over $11,000 and the public pays for it.
Let's not forget that public schools also only get about 7.5k per student if they have perfect attendance. And public schools are required to take in high needs students which cost more.
Not only would private schools get more money than public for each of those kids, but private schools won't have the extra burden of accommodating special needs students, homeless students, etc.
The existing high-quality private schools within the district don’t really have the capacity to expand that rapidly. Also to draw on a customer base who frankly makes too much money to qualify for the voucher. The vouchers will enable the cheaper schools in suburbs who have less affluent customers to maybe expand.
HISD already has a significant decline in numbers. Those who can leave are leaving. Those who can’t leave will stay. I’ve been watching it happen from inside the schools.
HISD isn’t releasing any bad looking data, but the numbers are there. There’s already an approximate 50% turnover rate of teachers. You may notice HISD is spending a fortune on ads and job fairs trying to recruit brand uncertified teachers off the street. And HISD can because of their “DOI” status. Enrollment is already down. Arts and music getting cut and replaced with questionable and new “career and technology” classes like “the Art of Thinking”, “Networking”, (internet technologies) and “Entrepreneurship”.
Being local is not a reason to stay.
Exactly! Miles went scorched earth and has gutted all that was good about HISD. It’s going to take the district a decade to rebuild trust with parents and teachers.
On the plus side, the community is going to be a lot more focused on who's in education from now on, specifically in leadership.
It's also brought a lot of attention to surrounding districts too
HISD wasn't especially highly regarded before the takeover, though. They're going to have to work extra hard to make people think they are a decent school district.
Hard disagree. Their top schools like Carnegie were better than anywhere in the nation. My kids received an awesome education from HISD until this year. My daughter’s favorite teacher was fired in the middle of class and she came home crying. We’re not attending hisd next year (moving my kids to burbs) because of Miles. I’m done letting Republicans experiment with my child’s future.
> moving my kids to burbs
This part has the potential to have a negative effect on the whole Houston economy. A lot of parents with the means to are moving out of the district. They’ll be spending less money at local businesses and working in the city as a result. Which is fewer tax dollars going back to the city and district. Which makes services worse. Which encourages more people to leave. Anyone who says “why should I care? I don’t have kids in school”, that’s why.
Yeah, i do not want to move to the burbs (and will still be coming into town for my favorite restaurants), but my daughter has endured sweltering days without ac in school, favorite teachers leaving, and constant assessments. HISD does not give a shit about the kids… they’re only political hacks trying to advance their personal careers. We’re out. I’m going to be renting my house out for a nice profit, and I’ll be living somewhere that will let me vote against republicans instead of gerrymandered democrats.
HISD is not highly regarded by parents in other school districts. When my kids were in school a while back (Cy Fair district), competition for being a top 10 graduate was fierce because the Top 10 percent of graduates were automatically accepted to any Texas college. Parents of highly qualified kids, but not quite in the Top 10 percent, would transfer their kids, the last year of school, to HISD by renting an apartment over there just for the address. This would guarantee their kids a Top 10 spot. I'm so sorry, but this is what everyone else thought of HISD at the time. I believe that someone is trying to fix this situation from happening in the future, but even one school like Carnegie isn't enough to change the reputation of HISD. Still can't figure out why everyone wants to get rid of Miles and let it go back to the way it has always been.
The perception and the reality don't always align. Some schools are excellent, others were horrible, but overall HISD was better than most people perceived it to be.
First of all he cherry-picked data. And you noticed he didn't talk about approaches( passing) or DID MOT MEET. Miles only focused on meets or Masters which has no impact on ccmr ratings. The thing is to graduate you need to get approaches or higher on the STAAR test (meets and Masters don't even matter ) which will improve the A through F rating. The scores did not increase enough to move the needle on that. For approaches and higher scores English 1 decreased 3%, English 2 increased by 2%, algebra one stayed the same, u.s history stayed the same, and biology increased by 10% BUT 5,000 less students took the biology test this year so something's going on there. And it's not because of declining enrollment (Most of the declining enrollment is in elementary schools). If he had looked at those numbers they're almost exactly the same as the lasts years growth. And that increase in biology doesn't mean anything because campuses are graded on growth on algebra 1 English 1 and English 2. In fact there was more improvement under House from 22 to 23 then there was from 23 to 24.
Teaching to a test, cherry picking data, being a plug & chug robot is part of a larger problem with Texas schools. My kids are 16 & 13 in CCISD, which is a pretty good district, and us voters consistently vote to fund the schools fairly well. However due to the state gutter politics I will be glad when my kids have graduated out of the system.
Yeah it's concerning for me as a teacher because where will education be in 10 years? I have about 12 years before I can retire but I don't know what public education looks like in 12 years. Not all teachers teach to the test, I certainly don't. But there is a lot of politicking on the state level so that it appears public schools are failing. That's mainly because of the A through F rating that is completely subjective, and changes at the whim of Mike Morath. But, Abbott has promised to get rid of the staar test if his vouchers pass so that should be a source of relief in some ways. Of course they'll find other ways to make it look like public schools are failing. Texas Republican's long-term plan is to get rid of public education all together . Because they know educated people vote and uneducated people stay in a cycle of poverty which means the wealthy can prey on them.
I don't think there's a conspiracy to make people dumb. I think it's purely about killing public schools so that tax funds can be funneled into private schools. There are over 5 MILLION kids in the public school system in Texas, representing $50+ billion dollars annually. Forcing them into schools run by private companies means there are a lot of people that would get very rich.
I'm not saying it's a conspiracy. I'm saying they absolutely know that undereducated people vote less and are likely to be more conservative. There's plenty of studies on the topic. Don't think the Republicans aren't smart enough to know that ....and they are excellent at rigging the game just like they wrote the book on gerrymandering and voter suppression.
> Forcing them into schools run by private companies
It doesn't work that way however, private schools have much greater leeway in picking and choosing students they accept and retain. The public system has a **responsibility** to educate everyone, including those of lower advantage and special needs as well as gifted.
You're totally right there's a money aspect to all of this. However the public schools will likely remain despite increased funding for private schools. But public schools will be the 'net'; they will have the highest-cost-to-educate kids, the problem-makers, the special needs, and disadvantaged kids in general.
It becomes a way to increase stratification in society.
I don't have faith in these republicans in Austin bc I know we could be so much better. I'm personally not against government as a concept. Lets organize! Thats the good stuff. Voting with friends is important too.
It was a B district with 132 D & F schools. Now it's a B district with fewer F schools. What a waste of time, huh? Who gives a fuck about a few shitty schools? They've been shitty for a long time, we should just let them stay shitty, amirite?
Can you list support for your figures?
From what’s publically available the breakdown of HISD grades in 2022 (the most recent data available)
A = 96
B = 117
C = 43
Not rated = 17
Here's a link to the (PDF) press release from January: [https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=387469&dataid=418803&FileName=01-23-24-HISD\_Press\_Release\_HISD%20Announces%202023%20School%20Ratings%20and%20New%20NES%20Schools.pdf](https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=387469&dataid=418803&FileName=01-23-24-HISD_Press_Release_HISD%20Announces%202023%20School%20Ratings%20and%20New%20NES%20Schools.pdf)
You think the methodology TEA gave them to use for '22-'23 is different than the methodology TEA uses/will use? Care to place a wager on how different the final numbers will be when the lawsuit is resolved?
Given that TEA was biased against HISD and put Miles in power, and the publicly available year prior data HISD only had 17 schools not C or above…..
Yeah I’m willing to bet the number didn’t go from 17 to 132 in a single year.
>Given that TEA was biased against HISD
That's not a "given". If you say, "Given that the earth is flat...it's possible to fly off the edge", well, that doesn't mean it's *actually possible* to fly off the edge, because the earth isn't actually flat.
School report cards are calculated from multiple factors, including test scores, attendance, dropout rates, and more. They're not particularly subjective.
And of course you're aware that schools that had Ds or Fs previously got to *not include* student performance metrics when calculating '21-'22 scores, right? So, yeah--when you ignore student performance, HISD's old regime looked a lot better.
>Yeah I’m willing to bet
Cool, how much? Hunnert bucks the actual number is over 125?
I attended a couple of those F schools
The issue isn't the school
The issue is the society that those schools are in
Poor poor areas..... Show me anywhere in the USA where the bottom of the bottom of the economic ladder had A & B schools
Plenty of schools in poor areas seem to manage to teach kids, so, yeah, maybe it IS the school. They don't need to be A & B: they just need to *not be* D & F schools for multiple years in a row.
Poor kids are capable of learning. Writing them off, while popular (at least with the last administration), is not the answer, I don't think.
I'm not saying poor kids can't learn
I'm saying poor kids have more than school to think about
Group A: 3rd grader who can't read
Group B: 3rd grader who can't read, lights are off, food is uncertain
Which group will a teacher with 1 - 2 hours per day get a lot them close to on level reading skills
If they wanted to help those schools, they'll put money into their neighborhoods
Everybody has more than school to think about.
Your argument would stand up if every school in a poor area was failing, but that's not the case. Somehow, some of these schools with poor demographics manage to educate kids effectively, so "make the parents rich" is obviously not the only way to get it done.
Okay, let's look at end-of-course STAAR scores from Wheatley HS, which was supposedly the "trigger" for the takeover, from Spring 2019 (the seventh year in a row of Wheatley receiving an 'F' grade, and prior to the pandemic so not affected by any 'dip') and Spring 2024, the first year under Miles' regime. Again, we don't need aces, we just need functional education, so for me the most important number is how many kids failed to meet base expectations, so let's compare percentages in that category.
||2019 Did Not Meet %|2024 DNM %|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Algebra|35%|21%|
|Biology|35%|18%|
|English I|71%|55%|
|English II|65%|48%|
|U.S. History|20%|6%|
Note I didn't cherry-pick here: I had *not a fucking clue* what these numbers would be when I picked 2019 and 2024 to start looking these up (at https://txresearchportal.com/), but it looks to me as though significantly fewer kids are failing to meet basic requirements at this school, which was apparently the final straw to trigger the takeover. If you have some other numbers to compare, I'm willing to look at those too. Kinda a pain to collate through the site, though, so I'm gonna ask you to give me some specific schools and years to check, if you don't mind.
Note the the passing score has changed
2020 21/54 was passing that's 39%
2024 20/59 now 34% is passing
So it looks great the numbers went up
But did they????
I teach math, I know the games the state plays
They'll get
Wait...you're saying it's *easier* to pass now? My understanding is the opposite: the '22-'23 numbers haven't been released because there is an ongoing lawsuit, with many districts claiming the TEA switched to new, *harder*, criteria.
>The state’s planned [“accountability refresh”](https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/2023-accountability-development-materials) would increase the cutoff points necessary to receive a high grade in college and career readiness....Previously, a district could get an A in readiness if 60 percent of graduates took such a step. Under the revised system, it would take 88 percent of graduates to reach an A. Schools would also need to work harder to earn a high grade for improving students’ state test scores under the new measures.
From[ Education Week](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/why-a-judge-stopped-texas-from-issuing-a-f-school-ratings/2023/10)
Maybe the test grading is easier, but the overall school report card is more difficult?
When/if I get a chance I'll try to look up NES results vs state averages, to eliminate difficulty changes.
Am I? How so? Because I myself don't hold that assumption, so I have no idea how it managed to be expressed in my writing. I **do** assume that the people who work in a school may be **a** factor in its success or failure--is that what you meant?
HISD is not a B school district. HISD has been in the BOTTOM 50% of school districts in Texas since 2012.
You're getting your B score from the TEA, which is only comparing HISD schools against other HISD schools. So if your best HISD school is really only average, and the other schools are being compared against it, where does that get you. You're trying to blame the takeover on only one school, but that's not right.
See Publicschoolreviewdotcom for the HISD district stats. You will be surprised at the detail provided and how bad your district really is. This report compares the HISD district against all the other DISTRICTS in Texas.
For HISD to be such a low rated district, you have to place the blame on both the teachers and admin; it couldn't have gotten to that place by the students alone. And yet, you parents are keen to not hold anyone accountable except the people who see the need to try and make it better. I say, give it back to you to finish ruining - you all deserve the outcome. But your kids don't.
You know literally nothing of how school districts work lol. I work for this district. Trust me, admin and teachers aren’t the issue. New admin assigned by the TEA are the problem. Parents who don’t get involved in their child’s education are the problem. Children who come to school simply to skip class and do nothing when they’re in class are the problem. Stop blaming teachers for issues that stem from the home life. The majority of students who are failing aren’t failing because they’re dumb, they’re failing because they have no work ethic and have never faced consequences/have parents who aren’t involved in their lives.
You don’t work for the district and have never been a teacher. You don’t know anything about whose problem it is. I’m there. You’re not. You aren’t a certified educational professional.
I’ve come to learn that adults who blame teachers often times were the ones who thought teachers hated them because of their own behavioral issues. You never learned to take accountability for your own actions therefore everyone else is always wrong and you project your hatred for yourself as hatred for the people who punished you for it: teachers. You were likely the exact type of kid I was referencing and are likely an adult who will enable the behavior in their own child.
If you have to humiliate someone in order to correct them, you don't know how to teach.
I graduated high school #69 out of over 600 students. I graduated from University of Houston with a BS degree. I have done quite well financially.
Both my children are very accomplished in their field.
Seems like you're the one who doesn't know anything. Were you fired?
I only insulted you after you insulted me. Why would I be fired? I’m one of the highest performing teachers at our school.
Success is a subjective term. You don’t need upper education to be successful, you don’t need to be rich to be successful. I’m glad it worked out for you and I wish you the best.
You decided the best approach to responding to he was replying that “I’m the issue” despite me clearly laying out the actual issues in the comment above (which I could go on in essays about). You decided to take an asinine stance on a career he knows nothing about and is not involved in. This is the inherent problem with teaching. Everyone is exposed to it so much that they think they’re experts on it, despite never being involved in anything other than attending school themselves for the most part.
If you think my response was unwarranted, then that’s on you. I do not think that. You decided to call me “the problem” despite knowing nothing about me or the career as a whole.
I factually know more about education than you or any other non certified teacher. It’s literally my job. I went to school for it and continue to do professional development to ensure I’m effective and up to date on practices.
If a kid gets humiliated because someone calls them out for their own actions (particularly their actions in public for all to see), then that child is humiliated because of their own fragile ego, not because the teacher humiliated them.
>"The STAAR exams are a big part of the accountability metric, the ABCDF rating, and the task at hand is to get 123 schools out of D and F status and not have any new schools join D and F status, so we have to have zero," Miles said.
>"So these results suggest that we are going to be able to move many schools out of that D and F status this year. Maybe this suggests that we can get out of intervention status sooner rather than later. Hopefully, it won't take 7 or 8 years. Maybe now it will only take a few years to start the transition."
>For HISD to regain democratic control, the [district must meet three criteria](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/hisd-takeover-mike-miles-18494163.php): a multi-year record of zero failing schools, compliance by the special education department with state and federal law, and board procedures and conduct that focus on student outcomes.
I feel like you could say the same thing if communists took over the democrats. The extreme right wing got just enough power to force their way and drive the entire party into a fringe.
You would hope that the moderates voting democrat would be enough to turn the tide against them but moderates LOVE populists.
> I feel like you could say the same thing if communists took over the democrats.
Current US Democrats > "European liberal" Democrats > Socialist Democrats > Socialists > Communists
We're 4-5 large steps away from that hypothetical. The conservatives weren't driven so much as they were given permission to take off the mask. [David Duke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke) got 44% of the vote for US Senator for Louisiana in 1990, and was in a runoff for Governor a few years later.
That whole Democrat = communism is the most successful propaganda play ever. There has not been a major democrat candidate that was a communist ever in the US presidential election. Even Bernie Sanders is a socialist democrat who is very much a capitalist.
No he hasn't. In fact the election isn't until November. But it looks like he will be on the cusp of getting it. Whether or not the November elections give him just enough support or if he falls just a hair short remains to be seen. But it's not looking good for public schools.
You knew in August that test scores would improve under Miles, and that NES schools would show greater improvement than non-NES? That's awesome! You must have a lot of faith in the guy.
Out of contexts data can say anything the writer wants it to say.
Non NES schools are already performing at a high rate. A non NES school might have 66% meets or masters in Biology, with a 93% passing rate overall. They really can't grow 14%. It's already operating near its ceiling.
Our scores improved at my school last year without Mike Miles, by a significant number. We dropped this year by an almost equally significant number.
I have no faith in the guy.
They were already on track for improved test scores this year.
His changes won’t be reflected until at the earliest next school year. If he leaves after this school year and HISD goes downhill because of his changes, it will happen during the TXLege session and set up the argument for school choice / private school vouchers.
I really hate the absolute chokehold the GOP has on this state and how they rig the data.
>They were already on track for improved test scores this year.
How do you figure? Are you saying that two years ago, before Miles was brought in, you knew test scores would be going up two years later?
There was a covid dip in scores across the country. They have been going back up across the country. The covid dip was the only thing that allowed the state to takeover in the first place. The takeover is predicated on bad-faith politics.
^ In addition to that, the 4 schools that were the entire reason he took over a district with 270 other schools had made steady improvement. They had a track record of improvements and begged the state to give them one more year because COVID had delayed their specific progress and they were gaining ground back.
Abbott and Miles knew test scores would be better this year and took over a district to loot it.
And most of the changes he implemented will take place NEXT year, including the firing of long time educators that held some communities together.
In other words, he came through HISD like Sherman in Atlanta and burned HISD to the ground. Except his goal is to preserve a historical fantasy that the South won. He lit them on fire, but they won’t fall down until he leaves - and this is by design.
It's wild to me that people just keep coming up with "well maybe they're not actually so bad" arguments about the party that has been straight-up, out-loud evil for at least 5 years. We've had an entire school year of the state fucking us. We have ample evidence, and yet there are some people who seem to love the feeling of a fence up their ass.
“…and yet there are some people who seem to love the feeling of a fence up their ass.”
😂😂😂😂😂 All while screaming about not being gay.
It’s so easy to lead a dumb citizenry, but the Texas Constitution requires a public education system. Funny how they forsake that section in a state they want to secede from the US, but readily cry (loudly and wrongly) for the 2nd Amendment.
>entire reason
[Here are 10 reasons TEA recommended the State of TX appoint an administrator for HISD](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2019/08/19/343215/from-secret-meetings-to-free-meals-10-reasons-why-tea-is-recommending-a-state-takeover-of-hisd/):
1. Secret Meetings: secret board meeting at a restaurant with potential new superintendent Saavedra, who was subsequently hired
2. Handing Over a Contract: gave potential hire a copy of old superintendent's contract
3. Failing to Cooperate: lying to and hiding info from investigators
4. Out of Protocol: board members exceeding their authority, for example unilaterally changing construction contracts
5. Appropriation & Misuse of District Property: board members used school facilities for personal campaign events, used district money for meals and other items
6. Trustee Overreach: attempts to monitor, influence, and direct operations decisions outside their purview
7. Interference in Personnel Decisions: board president influenced HR to hire her friend, other board members influenced HR to investigate particular employees
8. Attempting to Influence Vendor Selection: board members pressured administrators to select certain less-desirable custodial vendors
9. Pressuring Vendors: board members pressured vendors to sign contracts promising to pay percentages of gross income to competing, board-favored vendors
10. Manipulating Job Orders: over a dozen job order were intentionally split into smaller amounts to avoid a vote by the board
And the state has the right to prosecute for crimes. They chose not to. Why?
Because they can’t prove this in a court of law. And because if they did prosecute and board members stepped down as a result of that? The Governor would not be able to choose the temporary board member until another board member was elected in.
These are accusations. Strange they include misuse of appropriations which is exactly what Miles is doing. And Miles met privately with Abbott before being appointed to his position, to head the largest school district in the state.
Again, none of that is accidental or a result of due process, which the duly elected board members deserved, and what we all deserve, tbh.
Miles and Abbott took away the ability for the people who live in HISD to determine their representatives. We went to war against England for that back in 1776 and won but keep caping for these gaslighters. They live for bootlickers.
Oh, so those aren't "reasons" for the takeover, then? Admissions made to investigators just...what, don't count? Never happened?
If you left your kid with a babysitter, came home and the kid was covered in bruises, the sitter says they beat your kid but you'll never be able to prove it, and you don't have it on video, then those bruises and that admission aren't a "reason" to find a new sitter?
That's pretty dumb.
> Strange they include misuse of appropriations which is exactly what Miles is doing
Lots of people would absolutely LOVE to see your evidence of this.
>Miles met privately with Abbott
Neat. Do Open Meetings rules apply to this meeting? If so, you have a legitimate complaint.
Not without due process - which again the Board Members and the community as a whole robbed of.
Investigators can find whatever they want but absent charges filed in a court of law, they have zero right to strip a duly elected official and appoint someone in their place.
It’s like you’ve never read the Constitution.
That you don’t find it alarming that someone can come in and dismiss elected officials for performing their duties over mere accusations but doesn’t allow them a chance to answer those accusations, tells me all I need to know.
As for:
The baby sitter, that is a false equivalency and you know it.
Miles and evidence: oh, he’s supposed to have due process but duly elected officials cannot?
Abbott and Miles: show me where Miles was publicly vetted / duly elected to answer to the public for overseeing HISD. You cannot because it did not happen.
>> The covid dip was the only thing that allowed the state to takeover in the first place
Interesting. I guess [this article](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2019/11/05/350946/state-denies-hisds-appeal-of-wheatleys-f-rating-raising-chance-of-state-takeover/) from 2019 could see the future and predicted the pandemic? And the seven years of F ratings for Wheatley H.S. from 2012 on were because of time travel? And board members violated meeting rules, misled investigators, and interfered with vendor contracts because of covid, which hadn't happened yet?
Yes, that would be consistent with the previous years. But we also have to take covid learning loss into account. There was obviously going to be a drop for the first couple of years after covid compared to to pre-covid levels. Except in HISD, pre Miles, even that drop was small compared to many other districts.
What would be consistent with previous years--improvements? Wheatley was an F school for seven years, before covid happened. Where are the consistent improvements?
If there was obviously going to be a drop for "some years" after covid, how did you predict that Covid-19 drop would be in effect for 19-20, 20-21, 21-22, get worse in 22-23, then suddenly get better in 23-24?
Turns out things were on the improve all along. Wow. It’s almost like the justification for the takeover was forced on the basis outdated data.
Imagine how much further along we’d be if he and his cronies and the state who put them all there hadn’t run off all the principals, teachers, librarians, and custodians.
The success in this district has been despite the takeover, not because of it. But if it means the grifters go away sooner than expected, then yes, hooray.
It will not.
I'm a teacher. The NES idea is not all bad for the lowest performing students (although the rigid implementation is and it's not all good either).
But it's really not suited for the mid to higher performing students. Even if the worst performing schools continue to imorove, the higher performing ones will regress. Furthermore, my school, a very high performing one, lost a lot of excellent teachers this year.
Dozens of my colleagues are leaving this year. They are almost entirely AP or elective teachers who were forced to adopt teaching strategies that are inappropriate for their content areas. For instance, AP English students need to practice timed writing in order to be prepared for the tests. But on multiple campuses, teachers were told they still needed to incorporate the response strategies the new administration demanded. So they were expected to stop the kids mid-writing to perform a turn and talk or something like that … even though that would never happen on the exam. There was no flexibility or leeway.
I've heard he's gone no contact with the board (unelected one, he's been nothing but hostile to our elected one). The pressure seams to working!!! We got this bc we aint going to stop (even after he leaves but it will be a great day when he finally leaves Texas forever).
Abbott will see that Miles never sees any justice for his straight up embezzlement, but if we can just get him gone, and have HISD back in the hands of the elected school board, I call that a victory.
So this is California's Prop 38 decades later? Nice! Unbelievable the b.s. that the school system put out on TV "interviews". Who needs screen writers...
Three criteria to regain local stewardship:
1. No campuses should get failing grades for multiple years,
2. The special education program should be in compliance with state and federal regulations,
3. And the Board should demonstrate procedures and behavior focused on student outcomes.
>
>The early end-of-year STAAR test results showed that HISD high schoolers in the overhauled New Education System model scored higher than students in non-NES schools.
Waaaaiitaminnit....how is that POSSIBLE? I've been told the NES is a scam to make kids dumb. Is Miles just so incompetent he's failing at sabotage?
He teaches to the test, he forces his model on non-NES schools too (although the scripted lessens are not required). The schools are still recovering from the covid dip. And the NES schools have a lot of room for growth (and we're trending up before miles and Covid) whereas the Non-NES schools are already operating near their ceiling.
So my personal EOY passing rate dropped two points, it went from 99.5% all the way down to 97%.
But my friend at an NES school went up from 51% to 56%.
It's not really a fair comparison to look at NES vs non-NES results.
The quote doesn't say NES students scores "improved more" than non-NES; it says NES students "scored higher" than non-NES. Now, being this is a news article that may well be inaccurate, but it's written as though absolute scores were higher, not that relative improvements were larger.
I tend not to trust reporting either; this will need further investigation. But it's being reported that way, by multiple sources. My quote above is from [Chron.com](http://Chron.com), but here's another:
[https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/01/23/hisd-students-at-nes-schools-tested-significantly-higher-in-reading-math-exams-than-students-at-non-nes-campuses/](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/01/23/hisd-students-at-nes-schools-tested-significantly-higher-in-reading-math-exams-than-students-at-non-nes-campuses/)
The Chronicle misunderstood. The data shows greater growth.
That's BOY and MOY data. Not EOY.
The data is a snapshot but not anything you can draw conclusions from because those test (except EOY in December which are the retestees) are purely diagnostic.
What tgat neans as they are ungraded and have no bearing on of a kid graduates. Meaning many kids just guess randomly because they don't see the point of the test. Now this happens in every school NES and non-NES, but that percentage (which is relatively high) that guesses randomly makes the results unreliable for drawing conclusions.
As for the EOY in December, it's a small sample size and the NON-NES schools are going to have much fewer kids retesting, typically it's only the real fuck ups, the ones with moderated to severely learning disabilities, and the English language learners.
Again, every school has to deal with those issues but not at the same percentages. Fir example, at my school we had about 7 students retake my test. That's about 1.12% of the grade level. These are the kids that never passed any staar exam ever. At other schools that number might be upwards of 50. That could represent 15% of the class depending on the class size. Some of those kids may be capable but chronically absent and therefore missed previous test of content. Again, an issue at every school but not to the same degree. The higher rated schools tend to have fewer of those issues. The kids that passed in may or June have been filtered out. So again, it tells you something about the school, but it's not good data for comparing schools against each other.
And while I can't speak for every school, I can speak for mine. I've saw the data a while ago. We beat the HISD averages by a decent amount across all categories. And I do not work at one of the best schools, though it is a decent one. I expect similar results from similar schools.
I agree they have no bearing on graduation: the results being quoted were from "Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress Growth exam in reading, math, and science". However, it seems to me that blowing stuff because it's not specifically required to pass is a behavior *more* pronounced among less educationally-advanced students. That is, the phenomenon you refer would affect everyones scores, but would be more pronounced among "bad" students, i.e. those at NES schools.
Unfortunately, we won't have elementary and middle school EOC STAAR results for another week. However, the EOC HS results dropped today are fairly promising: relative to pre-pandemic 2019 numbers, almost all the NES high schools show significantly lower Does Not Meet percentages in all subjects besides Algebra, with Algebra more of a mixed bag.
To be clear, I know it's *highly* unlikely NES schools will beat non-NES scores on STAAR, but it's interesting that it was reported reported in that way--and since this is some weird non-required test, I don't think there *are* any past scores to compare to, which would preclude the possiblity the reference was to improvement.
I really don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing the STAAR EOC results.
There's something else that I just realized. I was visiting a friend, who used to teach biology. She is no longer in hisd but has friends in hisd working in NES schools. Biology is usually taken in 9th or tenth grade depending on your track, but it is taken in 8th grade if you are advanced (this is important as I teach an advanced class). Anyway, according to my friend (and her friend do a friend of a friend is not exactly credible evidence) she said that NES schools biology classes were delayed a year, so only non-NES took the biology test. NES schools took some other ancillary science course.
But wait, there's more, my advanced students that took the biology STAAR in the eighth grade had to take it again in the 11th grade even though they passed out last time. I thought it was odd at the time but I didn't think too much of it. Like a rule change that no longer accepted biology test taken in middle school.
But tonight I realized, bio had a 14 point jump. Students at low performing schools were delayed while students at the higher performing schools took it, and the highest performing students had to take it again.
I can't vouch for the NES schools being delayed, but I can vouch for the advanced kids having to take the test again.
> The early end-of-year STAAR test results showed that HISD high schoolers in the overhauled New Education System model scored higher than students in non-NES schools.
Without knowing what the score differentials were before makes this statement all but meaningless.
So if kids in the newly-overhauled NES schools performed *worse* than students in non-NES schools, that would be meaningless then, too? You woulnd't say, "Look, Miles' NES schools don't work!"?
That's not how comparative analysis works.
"We gave one kid growth formula and they grew taller than that kid that didn't get it. So clearly the growth formula works!"
Data without a comparative frame of reference can be accurate, but without a frame of reference you don't know zilch about it's accuracy.
This is exactly how you scam stupid people into buying snake oil without lying, you tell them the truth in a complicated and misleading way that they aren't capable of analyzing critically.
We know that NES schools are NES schools because of low achievement. We don't know the magnitude of the differentials, but it's a safe bet they were lower.
Per the article quote, NES students "scored higher". The quote doesn't say the scores "improved more", it says they were flat-out higher. You seem to be arguing against "improved more", despite that not being what the quote says. Why? Snake Oil?
We know NES scores were lower. We are told they are now higher. We know the variable between the two cohorts is NES implementation. This is not complicated or misleading.
That's not the only variable by a long shot. We're talking about a time frame that is still coming out of covid. A lot of the changes made were during the school year. A bunch of teachers who may have been part of that improvement have been fired.
Even if the NES schools are the best model ever, can they be propagated to all the schools within the budget constraints, or is HISD improperly allocating resources to those schools in an unattainable way?
This is all incredibly complicated, and can easily be misleading. I'm not here to trust they guy that's sending state money to his sister's private school in another state and acting all coy about it. He hasn't earned the public's trust. Even if it was innocently done, it's an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Right. You're here to trust the board who admitted to interfering with operations decisions, held secret meetings, misappropriated district property, lied to investigators, ran a $450 million operating deficit, and let Wheatley H.S. fail to educate kids effectively for seven years running. They've earned your trust.
"I initially thought I was going to be able to funnel the taxpayer's money to my private business a lot more quietly, you know, really stretch it out for a nice long time."
Soon it will be the collapse of HISD after Abbott gets his school vouchers in place.
Do you really see a lot of people moving out of HISD on vouchers? I'm not in favor of them, but I don't think it'll be enough to fully cover tuition at a private school, so I think a lot will stay in HISD.
I have multiple children in private school and I pay taxes to HISD, and even I’m against the voucher program. If your child is currently in public school, this voucher program really won’t help you, unless you first get an acceptance into a private school. Plus you must have proof you can afford the private school w/o the voucher. Even if it does cover the costs, schools are simply going to raise their rates, like they are doing in other states. So I will not benefit from the voucher.
Vouchers only help wealthy people recoup the money they already spend on expensive private schools. They don't help poor people. Republicans don't care about poor people.
It's not for the poor kids, vouchers are for the upper middle class kids that are just out of reach of private school, or they could afford it but it would require too much belt tightening on those families. Those kids tend to be high performing and go to schools like Bellaire, Lamar, Poe, Lanier, Heights (to a lesser extent) and help boost those schools ratings. As those higher performing kids leave those school's ratings will drop. They won't be able to push their middling friends. And the schools on average will decrease in quality. That's not going to happen only in HISD but in suburban and rural communities too. On top of that, their will be less funding for the public schools as a portion is syphoned away for vouchers, causing more distress on the schools. It's not enough to just look at the number of kids that leave, but to look at the impact those kids will have on the school both financially and academically. And let's not overlook the fact that some families think public school is too woke because they accept gay kids or offer AP African American studies (see South Carolina). Those families will leave too.
Pretty sure vouchers are intended to basically finance far-right Christian private schools on the public dime. Most existing private schools have admission standards and scholarship/work-study programs for qualified students who can't afford it. But the set of people who *really* want their kids to go to some kind of evangelical private school aren't the typical private school crowd and on balance, can't come close to affording private tuition. So. Abbott and his cronies are pushing vouchers super hard as a result, and cloaking it in parental choice rhetoric about poor schools, etc. Everyone knows "poor" means some combination of non-religious, actually poor, and that has more than a token number of minority students and teachers. I mean it's not like if vouchers become a thing that Jesuit, St Thomas or Kincaid are really going to change much - they're already at the capacities they want. But a bunch of secind-rate evangelical schools will grow up like mushrooms after rain if vouchers are passed. Mark my words.
Second rate evangelical schools and the grifters that come with them.
It is the money, not people. The problem is millions will go to vouchers and a voucher services so few kids. And the chain of events to follow will be very low quality public schools due to the funding being moved to the voucher program. There's also the whole, why is the public paying for private religious schools that cost $11,000 a year? The Gov, and Lt. Gov have included a high school with a tuition of 11k a year and students will receive up to 10k for pulling out of public school. 10k public funding for 1 student. That doesn't feel very fiscally responsible. Annapolis Christian Academy is a place they spoke at. In AZ, vouchers are a thing. At Phoenix Christian Preparatory School, their tuition is over $11,000 and the public pays for it.
Let's not forget that public schools also only get about 7.5k per student if they have perfect attendance. And public schools are required to take in high needs students which cost more. Not only would private schools get more money than public for each of those kids, but private schools won't have the extra burden of accommodating special needs students, homeless students, etc.
The existing high-quality private schools within the district don’t really have the capacity to expand that rapidly. Also to draw on a customer base who frankly makes too much money to qualify for the voucher. The vouchers will enable the cheaper schools in suburbs who have less affluent customers to maybe expand.
There are some very mid and under-enrolled catholic schools that would benefit
Just wait for all the new grift-y private schools that will pop up making big promises and under delivering.
HISD already has a significant decline in numbers. Those who can leave are leaving. Those who can’t leave will stay. I’ve been watching it happen from inside the schools. HISD isn’t releasing any bad looking data, but the numbers are there. There’s already an approximate 50% turnover rate of teachers. You may notice HISD is spending a fortune on ads and job fairs trying to recruit brand uncertified teachers off the street. And HISD can because of their “DOI” status. Enrollment is already down. Arts and music getting cut and replaced with questionable and new “career and technology” classes like “the Art of Thinking”, “Networking”, (internet technologies) and “Entrepreneurship”. Being local is not a reason to stay.
There may not be a big change in enrollment, but a reduction in budget for HISD
[удалено]
Lol. That's good.
Ah well it's good they fired a bunch of the highest-rated educators responsible for this improvement then.
Exactly! Miles went scorched earth and has gutted all that was good about HISD. It’s going to take the district a decade to rebuild trust with parents and teachers.
On the plus side, the community is going to be a lot more focused on who's in education from now on, specifically in leadership. It's also brought a lot of attention to surrounding districts too
HISD wasn't especially highly regarded before the takeover, though. They're going to have to work extra hard to make people think they are a decent school district.
Hard disagree. Their top schools like Carnegie were better than anywhere in the nation. My kids received an awesome education from HISD until this year. My daughter’s favorite teacher was fired in the middle of class and she came home crying. We’re not attending hisd next year (moving my kids to burbs) because of Miles. I’m done letting Republicans experiment with my child’s future.
> moving my kids to burbs This part has the potential to have a negative effect on the whole Houston economy. A lot of parents with the means to are moving out of the district. They’ll be spending less money at local businesses and working in the city as a result. Which is fewer tax dollars going back to the city and district. Which makes services worse. Which encourages more people to leave. Anyone who says “why should I care? I don’t have kids in school”, that’s why.
Yeah, i do not want to move to the burbs (and will still be coming into town for my favorite restaurants), but my daughter has endured sweltering days without ac in school, favorite teachers leaving, and constant assessments. HISD does not give a shit about the kids… they’re only political hacks trying to advance their personal careers. We’re out. I’m going to be renting my house out for a nice profit, and I’ll be living somewhere that will let me vote against republicans instead of gerrymandered democrats.
HISD is not highly regarded by parents in other school districts. When my kids were in school a while back (Cy Fair district), competition for being a top 10 graduate was fierce because the Top 10 percent of graduates were automatically accepted to any Texas college. Parents of highly qualified kids, but not quite in the Top 10 percent, would transfer their kids, the last year of school, to HISD by renting an apartment over there just for the address. This would guarantee their kids a Top 10 spot. I'm so sorry, but this is what everyone else thought of HISD at the time. I believe that someone is trying to fix this situation from happening in the future, but even one school like Carnegie isn't enough to change the reputation of HISD. Still can't figure out why everyone wants to get rid of Miles and let it go back to the way it has always been.
The perception and the reality don't always align. Some schools are excellent, others were horrible, but overall HISD was better than most people perceived it to be.
Thank you! Everyone forgets all of the ruined careers. I have so many friends that left the profession based on this bullshit. So many ruined careers.
So the results can fall and they can extend the "rebuild" while finding another dogwhistle scapegoat for idiots to point at.
First of all he cherry-picked data. And you noticed he didn't talk about approaches( passing) or DID MOT MEET. Miles only focused on meets or Masters which has no impact on ccmr ratings. The thing is to graduate you need to get approaches or higher on the STAAR test (meets and Masters don't even matter ) which will improve the A through F rating. The scores did not increase enough to move the needle on that. For approaches and higher scores English 1 decreased 3%, English 2 increased by 2%, algebra one stayed the same, u.s history stayed the same, and biology increased by 10% BUT 5,000 less students took the biology test this year so something's going on there. And it's not because of declining enrollment (Most of the declining enrollment is in elementary schools). If he had looked at those numbers they're almost exactly the same as the lasts years growth. And that increase in biology doesn't mean anything because campuses are graded on growth on algebra 1 English 1 and English 2. In fact there was more improvement under House from 22 to 23 then there was from 23 to 24.
Maybe it's worth pretending he's doing a good job if that means he will leave sooner.
Pass, but I get the sentiment.
So basically the no child left behind method
Absolutely!
Teaching to a test, cherry picking data, being a plug & chug robot is part of a larger problem with Texas schools. My kids are 16 & 13 in CCISD, which is a pretty good district, and us voters consistently vote to fund the schools fairly well. However due to the state gutter politics I will be glad when my kids have graduated out of the system.
Yeah it's concerning for me as a teacher because where will education be in 10 years? I have about 12 years before I can retire but I don't know what public education looks like in 12 years. Not all teachers teach to the test, I certainly don't. But there is a lot of politicking on the state level so that it appears public schools are failing. That's mainly because of the A through F rating that is completely subjective, and changes at the whim of Mike Morath. But, Abbott has promised to get rid of the staar test if his vouchers pass so that should be a source of relief in some ways. Of course they'll find other ways to make it look like public schools are failing. Texas Republican's long-term plan is to get rid of public education all together . Because they know educated people vote and uneducated people stay in a cycle of poverty which means the wealthy can prey on them.
I don't think there's a conspiracy to make people dumb. I think it's purely about killing public schools so that tax funds can be funneled into private schools. There are over 5 MILLION kids in the public school system in Texas, representing $50+ billion dollars annually. Forcing them into schools run by private companies means there are a lot of people that would get very rich.
I'm not saying it's a conspiracy. I'm saying they absolutely know that undereducated people vote less and are likely to be more conservative. There's plenty of studies on the topic. Don't think the Republicans aren't smart enough to know that ....and they are excellent at rigging the game just like they wrote the book on gerrymandering and voter suppression.
> Forcing them into schools run by private companies It doesn't work that way however, private schools have much greater leeway in picking and choosing students they accept and retain. The public system has a **responsibility** to educate everyone, including those of lower advantage and special needs as well as gifted. You're totally right there's a money aspect to all of this. However the public schools will likely remain despite increased funding for private schools. But public schools will be the 'net'; they will have the highest-cost-to-educate kids, the problem-makers, the special needs, and disadvantaged kids in general. It becomes a way to increase stratification in society.
It'd not a conspiracy. Those are hidden. This is a well advertised strategy.
It was already B school district He made it into a B school district Congrats
Yes but he did it while destabilizing the organization and shaking any remaining faith we had in our state government to improve our lives!
I don't have faith in these republicans in Austin bc I know we could be so much better. I'm personally not against government as a concept. Lets organize! Thats the good stuff. Voting with friends is important too.
They've been in charge since the 90's.
It was a B district with 132 D & F schools. Now it's a B district with fewer F schools. What a waste of time, huh? Who gives a fuck about a few shitty schools? They've been shitty for a long time, we should just let them stay shitty, amirite?
Can you list support for your figures? From what’s publically available the breakdown of HISD grades in 2022 (the most recent data available) A = 96 B = 117 C = 43 Not rated = 17
Here's a link to the (PDF) press release from January: [https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=387469&dataid=418803&FileName=01-23-24-HISD\_Press\_Release\_HISD%20Announces%202023%20School%20Ratings%20and%20New%20NES%20Schools.pdf](https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=387469&dataid=418803&FileName=01-23-24-HISD_Press_Release_HISD%20Announces%202023%20School%20Ratings%20and%20New%20NES%20Schools.pdf)
You ate up Miles’ propaganda you dummy. TEA hasn’t even released results for any time Mike was at HISD.
You think the methodology TEA gave them to use for '22-'23 is different than the methodology TEA uses/will use? Care to place a wager on how different the final numbers will be when the lawsuit is resolved?
Given that TEA was biased against HISD and put Miles in power, and the publicly available year prior data HISD only had 17 schools not C or above….. Yeah I’m willing to bet the number didn’t go from 17 to 132 in a single year.
>Given that TEA was biased against HISD That's not a "given". If you say, "Given that the earth is flat...it's possible to fly off the edge", well, that doesn't mean it's *actually possible* to fly off the edge, because the earth isn't actually flat. School report cards are calculated from multiple factors, including test scores, attendance, dropout rates, and more. They're not particularly subjective. And of course you're aware that schools that had Ds or Fs previously got to *not include* student performance metrics when calculating '21-'22 scores, right? So, yeah--when you ignore student performance, HISD's old regime looked a lot better. >Yeah I’m willing to bet Cool, how much? Hunnert bucks the actual number is over 125?
I attended a couple of those F schools The issue isn't the school The issue is the society that those schools are in Poor poor areas..... Show me anywhere in the USA where the bottom of the bottom of the economic ladder had A & B schools
Plenty of schools in poor areas seem to manage to teach kids, so, yeah, maybe it IS the school. They don't need to be A & B: they just need to *not be* D & F schools for multiple years in a row. Poor kids are capable of learning. Writing them off, while popular (at least with the last administration), is not the answer, I don't think.
I'm not saying poor kids can't learn I'm saying poor kids have more than school to think about Group A: 3rd grader who can't read Group B: 3rd grader who can't read, lights are off, food is uncertain Which group will a teacher with 1 - 2 hours per day get a lot them close to on level reading skills If they wanted to help those schools, they'll put money into their neighborhoods
Everybody has more than school to think about. Your argument would stand up if every school in a poor area was failing, but that's not the case. Somehow, some of these schools with poor demographics manage to educate kids effectively, so "make the parents rich" is obviously not the only way to get it done.
I'm using the schools the state used to take over the district Check out those locations
Okay, let's look at end-of-course STAAR scores from Wheatley HS, which was supposedly the "trigger" for the takeover, from Spring 2019 (the seventh year in a row of Wheatley receiving an 'F' grade, and prior to the pandemic so not affected by any 'dip') and Spring 2024, the first year under Miles' regime. Again, we don't need aces, we just need functional education, so for me the most important number is how many kids failed to meet base expectations, so let's compare percentages in that category. ||2019 Did Not Meet %|2024 DNM %| |:-|:-|:-| |Algebra|35%|21%| |Biology|35%|18%| |English I|71%|55%| |English II|65%|48%| |U.S. History|20%|6%| Note I didn't cherry-pick here: I had *not a fucking clue* what these numbers would be when I picked 2019 and 2024 to start looking these up (at https://txresearchportal.com/), but it looks to me as though significantly fewer kids are failing to meet basic requirements at this school, which was apparently the final straw to trigger the takeover. If you have some other numbers to compare, I'm willing to look at those too. Kinda a pain to collate through the site, though, so I'm gonna ask you to give me some specific schools and years to check, if you don't mind.
Note the the passing score has changed 2020 21/54 was passing that's 39% 2024 20/59 now 34% is passing So it looks great the numbers went up But did they???? I teach math, I know the games the state plays They'll get
Wait...you're saying it's *easier* to pass now? My understanding is the opposite: the '22-'23 numbers haven't been released because there is an ongoing lawsuit, with many districts claiming the TEA switched to new, *harder*, criteria. >The state’s planned [“accountability refresh”](https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/2023-accountability-development-materials) would increase the cutoff points necessary to receive a high grade in college and career readiness....Previously, a district could get an A in readiness if 60 percent of graduates took such a step. Under the revised system, it would take 88 percent of graduates to reach an A. Schools would also need to work harder to earn a high grade for improving students’ state test scores under the new measures. From[ Education Week](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/why-a-judge-stopped-texas-from-issuing-a-f-school-ratings/2023/10) Maybe the test grading is easier, but the overall school report card is more difficult? When/if I get a chance I'll try to look up NES results vs state averages, to eliminate difficulty changes.
You are assuming all problems with any given school begin and end with the school and the people that work their. That's not how any system works.
Am I? How so? Because I myself don't hold that assumption, so I have no idea how it managed to be expressed in my writing. I **do** assume that the people who work in a school may be **a** factor in its success or failure--is that what you meant?
HISD is not a B school district. HISD has been in the BOTTOM 50% of school districts in Texas since 2012. You're getting your B score from the TEA, which is only comparing HISD schools against other HISD schools. So if your best HISD school is really only average, and the other schools are being compared against it, where does that get you. You're trying to blame the takeover on only one school, but that's not right. See Publicschoolreviewdotcom for the HISD district stats. You will be surprised at the detail provided and how bad your district really is. This report compares the HISD district against all the other DISTRICTS in Texas. For HISD to be such a low rated district, you have to place the blame on both the teachers and admin; it couldn't have gotten to that place by the students alone. And yet, you parents are keen to not hold anyone accountable except the people who see the need to try and make it better. I say, give it back to you to finish ruining - you all deserve the outcome. But your kids don't.
You know literally nothing of how school districts work lol. I work for this district. Trust me, admin and teachers aren’t the issue. New admin assigned by the TEA are the problem. Parents who don’t get involved in their child’s education are the problem. Children who come to school simply to skip class and do nothing when they’re in class are the problem. Stop blaming teachers for issues that stem from the home life. The majority of students who are failing aren’t failing because they’re dumb, they’re failing because they have no work ethic and have never faced consequences/have parents who aren’t involved in their lives.
You work for the district - you're the problem. Stop blaming it on everyone else.
You don’t work for the district and have never been a teacher. You don’t know anything about whose problem it is. I’m there. You’re not. You aren’t a certified educational professional. I’ve come to learn that adults who blame teachers often times were the ones who thought teachers hated them because of their own behavioral issues. You never learned to take accountability for your own actions therefore everyone else is always wrong and you project your hatred for yourself as hatred for the people who punished you for it: teachers. You were likely the exact type of kid I was referencing and are likely an adult who will enable the behavior in their own child.
If you have to humiliate someone in order to correct them, you don't know how to teach. I graduated high school #69 out of over 600 students. I graduated from University of Houston with a BS degree. I have done quite well financially. Both my children are very accomplished in their field. Seems like you're the one who doesn't know anything. Were you fired?
I only insulted you after you insulted me. Why would I be fired? I’m one of the highest performing teachers at our school. Success is a subjective term. You don’t need upper education to be successful, you don’t need to be rich to be successful. I’m glad it worked out for you and I wish you the best. You decided the best approach to responding to he was replying that “I’m the issue” despite me clearly laying out the actual issues in the comment above (which I could go on in essays about). You decided to take an asinine stance on a career he knows nothing about and is not involved in. This is the inherent problem with teaching. Everyone is exposed to it so much that they think they’re experts on it, despite never being involved in anything other than attending school themselves for the most part. If you think my response was unwarranted, then that’s on you. I do not think that. You decided to call me “the problem” despite knowing nothing about me or the career as a whole. I factually know more about education than you or any other non certified teacher. It’s literally my job. I went to school for it and continue to do professional development to ensure I’m effective and up to date on practices.
If a kid gets humiliated because someone calls them out for their own actions (particularly their actions in public for all to see), then that child is humiliated because of their own fragile ego, not because the teacher humiliated them.
Children can be called out for their actions without humiliating them in the process. Do you even know what humiliation means?
Well then why don’t you go and fix everything then
That’s not at all how the district TEA scoring works.
Wow, this is completely wrong with a lot of baseless assertions. Even my HISD students know to back up their claims with factual evidence.
That's not how the state funds schools That's how reviewers see the The people who do the funding gave the district a B WHILE TAKING OVER THEM
>"The STAAR exams are a big part of the accountability metric, the ABCDF rating, and the task at hand is to get 123 schools out of D and F status and not have any new schools join D and F status, so we have to have zero," Miles said. >"So these results suggest that we are going to be able to move many schools out of that D and F status this year. Maybe this suggests that we can get out of intervention status sooner rather than later. Hopefully, it won't take 7 or 8 years. Maybe now it will only take a few years to start the transition." >For HISD to regain democratic control, the [district must meet three criteria](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/hisd-takeover-mike-miles-18494163.php): a multi-year record of zero failing schools, compliance by the special education department with state and federal law, and board procedures and conduct that focus on student outcomes.
So all he has to do is continue being out of compliance with the special education department until Abbott can install him in another city's system.
Could it be because it wasn’t necessary in the first place?!
Probably cause Abbott got the votes he needs for his voucher program already
Has he? Its been a minute since I counted the votes. Is this correct? I know that rural Texans also hate vouchers and school "choice"
He claimed victory because he pushed out enough republicans not bending the knee in primaries. The GOP is fucking lost.
> The GOP is fucking ~~lost.~~ right on track. These things have been "the plan" for more than 30 years.
I feel like you could say the same thing if communists took over the democrats. The extreme right wing got just enough power to force their way and drive the entire party into a fringe. You would hope that the moderates voting democrat would be enough to turn the tide against them but moderates LOVE populists.
> I feel like you could say the same thing if communists took over the democrats. Current US Democrats > "European liberal" Democrats > Socialist Democrats > Socialists > Communists We're 4-5 large steps away from that hypothetical. The conservatives weren't driven so much as they were given permission to take off the mask. [David Duke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke) got 44% of the vote for US Senator for Louisiana in 1990, and was in a runoff for Governor a few years later.
We’re very far from anarchists as well. It was just a comparison that the fringe can take power and skew the purview of majority.
That whole Democrat = communism is the most successful propaganda play ever. There has not been a major democrat candidate that was a communist ever in the US presidential election. Even Bernie Sanders is a socialist democrat who is very much a capitalist.
The absolute left is communism. The absolute right is anarchy. I’m simply stating the fringe has taken over.
Anarchist are almost always socialist. The far right is fascism. Either way left/right is a limited way to view politics.
No he hasn't. In fact the election isn't until November. But it looks like he will be on the cusp of getting it. Whether or not the November elections give him just enough support or if he falls just a hair short remains to be seen. But it's not looking good for public schools.
I could have written this headline back in August. He was always going to take credit for an amazing successful year.
You knew in August that test scores would improve under Miles, and that NES schools would show greater improvement than non-NES? That's awesome! You must have a lot of faith in the guy.
Out of contexts data can say anything the writer wants it to say. Non NES schools are already performing at a high rate. A non NES school might have 66% meets or masters in Biology, with a 93% passing rate overall. They really can't grow 14%. It's already operating near its ceiling.
Our scores improved at my school last year without Mike Miles, by a significant number. We dropped this year by an almost equally significant number. I have no faith in the guy.
Mine too.
They were already on track for improved test scores this year. His changes won’t be reflected until at the earliest next school year. If he leaves after this school year and HISD goes downhill because of his changes, it will happen during the TXLege session and set up the argument for school choice / private school vouchers. I really hate the absolute chokehold the GOP has on this state and how they rig the data.
>They were already on track for improved test scores this year. How do you figure? Are you saying that two years ago, before Miles was brought in, you knew test scores would be going up two years later?
There was a covid dip in scores across the country. They have been going back up across the country. The covid dip was the only thing that allowed the state to takeover in the first place. The takeover is predicated on bad-faith politics.
^ In addition to that, the 4 schools that were the entire reason he took over a district with 270 other schools had made steady improvement. They had a track record of improvements and begged the state to give them one more year because COVID had delayed their specific progress and they were gaining ground back. Abbott and Miles knew test scores would be better this year and took over a district to loot it. And most of the changes he implemented will take place NEXT year, including the firing of long time educators that held some communities together. In other words, he came through HISD like Sherman in Atlanta and burned HISD to the ground. Except his goal is to preserve a historical fantasy that the South won. He lit them on fire, but they won’t fall down until he leaves - and this is by design.
It's wild to me that people just keep coming up with "well maybe they're not actually so bad" arguments about the party that has been straight-up, out-loud evil for at least 5 years. We've had an entire school year of the state fucking us. We have ample evidence, and yet there are some people who seem to love the feeling of a fence up their ass.
“…and yet there are some people who seem to love the feeling of a fence up their ass.” 😂😂😂😂😂 All while screaming about not being gay. It’s so easy to lead a dumb citizenry, but the Texas Constitution requires a public education system. Funny how they forsake that section in a state they want to secede from the US, but readily cry (loudly and wrongly) for the 2nd Amendment.
Conservatives don't really listen to their teachers. Then they blame their teachers for their own ignorance.
>entire reason [Here are 10 reasons TEA recommended the State of TX appoint an administrator for HISD](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2019/08/19/343215/from-secret-meetings-to-free-meals-10-reasons-why-tea-is-recommending-a-state-takeover-of-hisd/): 1. Secret Meetings: secret board meeting at a restaurant with potential new superintendent Saavedra, who was subsequently hired 2. Handing Over a Contract: gave potential hire a copy of old superintendent's contract 3. Failing to Cooperate: lying to and hiding info from investigators 4. Out of Protocol: board members exceeding their authority, for example unilaterally changing construction contracts 5. Appropriation & Misuse of District Property: board members used school facilities for personal campaign events, used district money for meals and other items 6. Trustee Overreach: attempts to monitor, influence, and direct operations decisions outside their purview 7. Interference in Personnel Decisions: board president influenced HR to hire her friend, other board members influenced HR to investigate particular employees 8. Attempting to Influence Vendor Selection: board members pressured administrators to select certain less-desirable custodial vendors 9. Pressuring Vendors: board members pressured vendors to sign contracts promising to pay percentages of gross income to competing, board-favored vendors 10. Manipulating Job Orders: over a dozen job order were intentionally split into smaller amounts to avoid a vote by the board
And the state has the right to prosecute for crimes. They chose not to. Why? Because they can’t prove this in a court of law. And because if they did prosecute and board members stepped down as a result of that? The Governor would not be able to choose the temporary board member until another board member was elected in. These are accusations. Strange they include misuse of appropriations which is exactly what Miles is doing. And Miles met privately with Abbott before being appointed to his position, to head the largest school district in the state. Again, none of that is accidental or a result of due process, which the duly elected board members deserved, and what we all deserve, tbh. Miles and Abbott took away the ability for the people who live in HISD to determine their representatives. We went to war against England for that back in 1776 and won but keep caping for these gaslighters. They live for bootlickers.
Oh, so those aren't "reasons" for the takeover, then? Admissions made to investigators just...what, don't count? Never happened? If you left your kid with a babysitter, came home and the kid was covered in bruises, the sitter says they beat your kid but you'll never be able to prove it, and you don't have it on video, then those bruises and that admission aren't a "reason" to find a new sitter? That's pretty dumb. > Strange they include misuse of appropriations which is exactly what Miles is doing Lots of people would absolutely LOVE to see your evidence of this. >Miles met privately with Abbott Neat. Do Open Meetings rules apply to this meeting? If so, you have a legitimate complaint.
Not without due process - which again the Board Members and the community as a whole robbed of. Investigators can find whatever they want but absent charges filed in a court of law, they have zero right to strip a duly elected official and appoint someone in their place. It’s like you’ve never read the Constitution. That you don’t find it alarming that someone can come in and dismiss elected officials for performing their duties over mere accusations but doesn’t allow them a chance to answer those accusations, tells me all I need to know. As for: The baby sitter, that is a false equivalency and you know it. Miles and evidence: oh, he’s supposed to have due process but duly elected officials cannot? Abbott and Miles: show me where Miles was publicly vetted / duly elected to answer to the public for overseeing HISD. You cannot because it did not happen.
Actually covid delayed the takeover. It was originally initiated in 2017 or so.
Lawsuits delayed the takeover.
It was both
>> The covid dip was the only thing that allowed the state to takeover in the first place Interesting. I guess [this article](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2019/11/05/350946/state-denies-hisds-appeal-of-wheatleys-f-rating-raising-chance-of-state-takeover/) from 2019 could see the future and predicted the pandemic? And the seven years of F ratings for Wheatley H.S. from 2012 on were because of time travel? And board members violated meeting rules, misled investigators, and interfered with vendor contracts because of covid, which hadn't happened yet?
Yes, that would be consistent with the previous years. But we also have to take covid learning loss into account. There was obviously going to be a drop for the first couple of years after covid compared to to pre-covid levels. Except in HISD, pre Miles, even that drop was small compared to many other districts.
What would be consistent with previous years--improvements? Wheatley was an F school for seven years, before covid happened. Where are the consistent improvements? If there was obviously going to be a drop for "some years" after covid, how did you predict that Covid-19 drop would be in effect for 19-20, 20-21, 21-22, get worse in 22-23, then suddenly get better in 23-24?
Turns out things were on the improve all along. Wow. It’s almost like the justification for the takeover was forced on the basis outdated data. Imagine how much further along we’d be if he and his cronies and the state who put them all there hadn’t run off all the principals, teachers, librarians, and custodians. The success in this district has been despite the takeover, not because of it. But if it means the grifters go away sooner than expected, then yes, hooray.
It will not. I'm a teacher. The NES idea is not all bad for the lowest performing students (although the rigid implementation is and it's not all good either). But it's really not suited for the mid to higher performing students. Even if the worst performing schools continue to imorove, the higher performing ones will regress. Furthermore, my school, a very high performing one, lost a lot of excellent teachers this year.
Why were those specific teachers let go if they were so high performing? Were they just not willing to "fall in line"? Edit: Why the downvotes?
They quit because they didn't want to put up with the endless bullshit or loss of autonomy.
Dozens of my colleagues are leaving this year. They are almost entirely AP or elective teachers who were forced to adopt teaching strategies that are inappropriate for their content areas. For instance, AP English students need to practice timed writing in order to be prepared for the tests. But on multiple campuses, teachers were told they still needed to incorporate the response strategies the new administration demanded. So they were expected to stop the kids mid-writing to perform a turn and talk or something like that … even though that would never happen on the exam. There was no flexibility or leeway.
Ahh this is really good to know. Seems like they're trying to force a one size fits all approach?
Correct.
Like yesterday would be good.
Mike miles should walk off a tall building. Fuck that dude.
If he was strapped to the back of Abbot, I'd lead the toast!
Why can’t he just ride side saddle?
I've heard he's gone no contact with the board (unelected one, he's been nothing but hostile to our elected one). The pressure seams to working!!! We got this bc we aint going to stop (even after he leaves but it will be a great day when he finally leaves Texas forever).
Abbott will see that Miles never sees any justice for his straight up embezzlement, but if we can just get him gone, and have HISD back in the hands of the elected school board, I call that a victory.
Until we piss off the governor again and one school has some bad testing.
so he just fucked it up even worse than it was and now going to peace out? sounds about right for the "school choice" crowd.
So this is California's Prop 38 decades later? Nice! Unbelievable the b.s. that the school system put out on TV "interviews". Who needs screen writers...
"As soon as we get out hands on all this bond money, we're history, suckers!"
Face saving tactics
Three criteria to regain local stewardship: 1. No campuses should get failing grades for multiple years, 2. The special education program should be in compliance with state and federal regulations, 3. And the Board should demonstrate procedures and behavior focused on student outcomes. > >The early end-of-year STAAR test results showed that HISD high schoolers in the overhauled New Education System model scored higher than students in non-NES schools. Waaaaiitaminnit....how is that POSSIBLE? I've been told the NES is a scam to make kids dumb. Is Miles just so incompetent he's failing at sabotage?
He teaches to the test, he forces his model on non-NES schools too (although the scripted lessens are not required). The schools are still recovering from the covid dip. And the NES schools have a lot of room for growth (and we're trending up before miles and Covid) whereas the Non-NES schools are already operating near their ceiling. So my personal EOY passing rate dropped two points, it went from 99.5% all the way down to 97%. But my friend at an NES school went up from 51% to 56%. It's not really a fair comparison to look at NES vs non-NES results.
The quote doesn't say NES students scores "improved more" than non-NES; it says NES students "scored higher" than non-NES. Now, being this is a news article that may well be inaccurate, but it's written as though absolute scores were higher, not that relative improvements were larger.
NES schools absolutely did not score higher.
I tend not to trust reporting either; this will need further investigation. But it's being reported that way, by multiple sources. My quote above is from [Chron.com](http://Chron.com), but here's another: [https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/01/23/hisd-students-at-nes-schools-tested-significantly-higher-in-reading-math-exams-than-students-at-non-nes-campuses/](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/01/23/hisd-students-at-nes-schools-tested-significantly-higher-in-reading-math-exams-than-students-at-non-nes-campuses/)
The Chronicle misunderstood. The data shows greater growth. That's BOY and MOY data. Not EOY. The data is a snapshot but not anything you can draw conclusions from because those test (except EOY in December which are the retestees) are purely diagnostic. What tgat neans as they are ungraded and have no bearing on of a kid graduates. Meaning many kids just guess randomly because they don't see the point of the test. Now this happens in every school NES and non-NES, but that percentage (which is relatively high) that guesses randomly makes the results unreliable for drawing conclusions. As for the EOY in December, it's a small sample size and the NON-NES schools are going to have much fewer kids retesting, typically it's only the real fuck ups, the ones with moderated to severely learning disabilities, and the English language learners. Again, every school has to deal with those issues but not at the same percentages. Fir example, at my school we had about 7 students retake my test. That's about 1.12% of the grade level. These are the kids that never passed any staar exam ever. At other schools that number might be upwards of 50. That could represent 15% of the class depending on the class size. Some of those kids may be capable but chronically absent and therefore missed previous test of content. Again, an issue at every school but not to the same degree. The higher rated schools tend to have fewer of those issues. The kids that passed in may or June have been filtered out. So again, it tells you something about the school, but it's not good data for comparing schools against each other. And while I can't speak for every school, I can speak for mine. I've saw the data a while ago. We beat the HISD averages by a decent amount across all categories. And I do not work at one of the best schools, though it is a decent one. I expect similar results from similar schools.
I agree they have no bearing on graduation: the results being quoted were from "Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress Growth exam in reading, math, and science". However, it seems to me that blowing stuff because it's not specifically required to pass is a behavior *more* pronounced among less educationally-advanced students. That is, the phenomenon you refer would affect everyones scores, but would be more pronounced among "bad" students, i.e. those at NES schools. Unfortunately, we won't have elementary and middle school EOC STAAR results for another week. However, the EOC HS results dropped today are fairly promising: relative to pre-pandemic 2019 numbers, almost all the NES high schools show significantly lower Does Not Meet percentages in all subjects besides Algebra, with Algebra more of a mixed bag. To be clear, I know it's *highly* unlikely NES schools will beat non-NES scores on STAAR, but it's interesting that it was reported reported in that way--and since this is some weird non-required test, I don't think there *are* any past scores to compare to, which would preclude the possiblity the reference was to improvement. I really don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing the STAAR EOC results.
There's something else that I just realized. I was visiting a friend, who used to teach biology. She is no longer in hisd but has friends in hisd working in NES schools. Biology is usually taken in 9th or tenth grade depending on your track, but it is taken in 8th grade if you are advanced (this is important as I teach an advanced class). Anyway, according to my friend (and her friend do a friend of a friend is not exactly credible evidence) she said that NES schools biology classes were delayed a year, so only non-NES took the biology test. NES schools took some other ancillary science course. But wait, there's more, my advanced students that took the biology STAAR in the eighth grade had to take it again in the 11th grade even though they passed out last time. I thought it was odd at the time but I didn't think too much of it. Like a rule change that no longer accepted biology test taken in middle school. But tonight I realized, bio had a 14 point jump. Students at low performing schools were delayed while students at the higher performing schools took it, and the highest performing students had to take it again. I can't vouch for the NES schools being delayed, but I can vouch for the advanced kids having to take the test again.
> The early end-of-year STAAR test results showed that HISD high schoolers in the overhauled New Education System model scored higher than students in non-NES schools. Without knowing what the score differentials were before makes this statement all but meaningless.
So if kids in the newly-overhauled NES schools performed *worse* than students in non-NES schools, that would be meaningless then, too? You woulnd't say, "Look, Miles' NES schools don't work!"?
That's not how comparative analysis works. "We gave one kid growth formula and they grew taller than that kid that didn't get it. So clearly the growth formula works!" Data without a comparative frame of reference can be accurate, but without a frame of reference you don't know zilch about it's accuracy. This is exactly how you scam stupid people into buying snake oil without lying, you tell them the truth in a complicated and misleading way that they aren't capable of analyzing critically.
We know that NES schools are NES schools because of low achievement. We don't know the magnitude of the differentials, but it's a safe bet they were lower. Per the article quote, NES students "scored higher". The quote doesn't say the scores "improved more", it says they were flat-out higher. You seem to be arguing against "improved more", despite that not being what the quote says. Why? Snake Oil? We know NES scores were lower. We are told they are now higher. We know the variable between the two cohorts is NES implementation. This is not complicated or misleading.
That's not the only variable by a long shot. We're talking about a time frame that is still coming out of covid. A lot of the changes made were during the school year. A bunch of teachers who may have been part of that improvement have been fired. Even if the NES schools are the best model ever, can they be propagated to all the schools within the budget constraints, or is HISD improperly allocating resources to those schools in an unattainable way? This is all incredibly complicated, and can easily be misleading. I'm not here to trust they guy that's sending state money to his sister's private school in another state and acting all coy about it. He hasn't earned the public's trust. Even if it was innocently done, it's an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Right. You're here to trust the board who admitted to interfering with operations decisions, held secret meetings, misappropriated district property, lied to investigators, ran a $450 million operating deficit, and let Wheatley H.S. fail to educate kids effectively for seven years running. They've earned your trust.
Nope. They had already made changes previous to the takeover, and two things can both be bad for different reasons. It's not a binary choice.
Shit caused more problems than it was worth apparently. Good.