The changes in Houston Independent School District rival some of the most significant shake-ups to a public school system ever, according to Governing.
The changes experienced by the 180,000-plus students throughout HISD this school year are the result of the most significant state takeover of a school district in American history.
HISD’s state-appointed superintendent and school board have redesigned teaching and learning across the district, sought to tie teacher pay more closely to student test scores, boosted some teacher salaries by tens of thousands of dollars and slashed spending on many non-classroom expenses.
Education leaders throughout the U.S. are following the HISD efforts to see whether they may be worth replicating.
Early successes include strong improvement in state test scores this year. Black and Latino children in urban school districts like Houston for decades have trailed well behind wealthier and white students in school.
Critics, though, cite high teacher turnover headed into the next school year and long-term questions about the plan’s affordability.
The HISD intervention hits on one of the most pressing questions in education: Can a large, urban public school district dramatically raise student achievement and shrink decades-old performance gaps, ultimately helping to close America’s class divide?
There have been some encouraging indicators in the first year:
The elementary and middle schools Miles targeted for changes saw, on average, a 7 percentage point increase in the share of students scoring at or above grade level on statewide reading and math tests, commonly known as the STAAR exams. Other HISD schools saw a 1 percentage point increase, while state averages slid in math and remained flat in reading.
HISD also has made some progress in meeting legal requirements for serving students with disabilities, an area in which the district has struggled for more than a decade, according to state-appointed conservators monitoring the district.
But other indicators could spell trouble in year two and beyond.
As of early June, four weeks before educators’ deadline to resign without penalty, roughly one-quarter of HISD’s 11,000-plus teachers had left their positions ahead of the upcoming school year, district administrators said. Historically, HISD’s teacher turnover rate has hovered around 15% to 20%.
The departures follow widespread complaints that district administrators micromanage teachers by frequently observing classroom instruction and providing feedback.
The financial viability of the plans also remains in question. HISD ran a nearly $200 million deficit on a roughly $2.2 billion budget the first year, with much of the shortfall tied to dramatic increases in staffing and pay at overhauled schools. The district is budgeting a similar deficit next year, though it plans to use $80 million in unspecified property sales to lessen the blow.
Still, if HISD can continue to post strong test scores, Texas lawmakers could expand the model beyond Houston.
Even if HISD produces remarkable gains in the coming years, many elected school boards — which answer directly to local voters, unlike the state-appointed board — might not stomach upheaval on the level of Houston.
More than 100 community members criticize the district administration during school board meetings. In one particularly heated exchange from June, a district administrator repeatedly yelled “scoreboard” at a group of jeering audience members while pointing to a screen displaying student test scores.
Three of HISD’s nine elected trustees responded to interview requests for this story. They said they want to see multiple years of data on the impact of the new approach before solidifying their impressions.
Most said they would reverse unpopular details of the plan, such as requiring some children to carry a traffic cone to the bathroom as a hall pass, but they found early evidence of the academic impact promising.
“If I had to make a decision right now of whether to continue [the overhaul model], I would,” says Gómez, who represents parts of eastern and central HISD. “There isn’t enough data to say, ‘This definitely works,’ but there’s enough for me to want to continue on this path.”
Governing
