Latest news with #HoustonISD
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Houston ISD Faces Extended TEA Control Until 2027, New Board Appointed
(Texas Scorecard) – Houston Independent School District will remain under the control of the Texas Education Agency through at least June 1, 2027. Alongside the extended timeline, TEA also announced the replacement of four members of the state-appointed Board of Managers. TEA took control of Houston ISD in 2023 after years of chronic student underperformance and governance failures. The state replaced the elected school board, appointed Superintendent Mike Miles, and implemented a series of aggressive reforms. Since the takeover, Houston ISD has reduced the number of D- and F-rated campuses from 121 in 2023 to 41 in 2024, according to preliminary reporting. Despite progress, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath emphasized the need for continued state involvement to ensure long-term improvement. 'Houston ISD has always been a district with some of the highest performing schools in the country, but it was also a district that allowed some of its schools to fail students for over a decade,' Morath said. Ultimately, two years has not been enough time to fix district systems that were broken for decades. The extension of this intervention will allow the district to build on its progress and achieve lasting success for students once the board transitions back to elected leadership. To conclude the intervention, Houston ISD must eliminate all multi-year failing campuses, fully comply with state and federal special education laws, and demonstrate effective board governance. Earlier this year, Houston ISD spent hundreds of millions of dollars without the required board approval. Community reactions remain divided. Parent and advocacy groups praised the focus on student achievement, while critics have questioned the transparency of the appointment process and urged greater community input. The new Houston ISD Board appointees are: Edgar Colón: Legal expert and political science lecturer Lauren Gore: Harvard Law graduate and general partner at LDR Growth Partners Marty Goossen: Retired vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Private Bank Marcos Rosales: Trial lawyer at Beck Redden LLP Brina Morales, director of communications for the Greater Houston Partnership, celebrated the TEA extension, writing, 'Commissioner Morath is right to extend the period of reform to ensure these improvements take hold long-term, significantly impacting generations of students.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Texas Education Agency extends Houston school district takeover through 2027
The state takeover of the Houston Independent School District will continue for two more years, the Texas Education Agency announced Monday. Education Commissioner Mike Morath had until June 1 to decide next steps for the state's largest school district, whose former superintendent and elected school board members were ousted and replaced in 2023 due to years of poor academic outcomes at a single campus and allegations of leadership misconduct. Since then, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has led the district, a controversial figure in Houston who has ushered improvements on state exams while struggling to win over community support. Still, Morath decided to extend the intervention until June 1, 2027, applauding the district for its improvements but citing the need for more progress. That progress, he said, will have to include no school campuses with failing accountability scores across multiple years, compliance with special education requirements and improved school board governance. Morath on Monday also announced the appointment of four new school board members, replacing four he selected in 2023. 'With the changes made in the last two years, Houston ISD is well on its way to being a district where all of its schools provide students with the educational opportunities that will allow them to access the American Dream,' the commissioner said in a statement. 'Ultimately, two years has not been enough time to fix district systems that were broken for decades. The extension of this intervention will allow the district to build on its progress and achieve lasting success for students once the board transitions back to elected leadership.' The Houston Chronicle first reported the extension of the takeover. Under Miles' leadership, the district has experienced extraordinary staff turnover and plummeting student enrollment. Miles, who inherited a district that for years ran an overall well-performing school system, has faced accusations of shepherding a militaristic educational environment where teachers have limited freedom to teach in ways they see fit and children are exhausted and disengaged from learning. Miles, on the other hand, has touted student improvement on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test, and progress in the district's A-F accountability ratings as proof that his model is effective, an achievement that Morath and state lawmakers have publicly commended. During the November election, Houston voters shot down a plan to approve $4.4 billion in academic and infrastructure improvements for the school district — the largest proposal of its kind in state history — which many saw as a litmus test for Miles' support. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Unproven school board governance training in Texas is all hat and no cattle
Under the guise of improving academic outcomes, the Texas Education Agency has required some public school districts across Texas to adopt Lone Star Governance, a program that includes coaching and training for school board members. Texans who care about efficient government and local control should be concerned with the state's interference and how money is being diverted away from schools to well-connected consultants for an unproven and costly enterprise that is all hat and no cattle. According to the TEA, Lone Star Governance is a continuous improvement model, 'founded on research' and focused on 'improving student outcomes.' TEA has required the board of trustees in several districts — including Austin ISD, Fort Worth ISD and Houston ISD — to adopt Lone Star Governance to address various issues, from special education-related failures to persistent low performance on state standardized assessments. However, as education researchers, we are concerned that TEA is requiring public school districts spend public funds on an approach with no evidence of effectiveness. A TEA-created flyer claims that districts implementing Lone Star Governance saw, on average, a 10-point increase in accountability scores between 2018 and 2019, compared to 3 points for districts not using that model. The flyer does not indicate which districts were part of this calculation. However, according to information we obtained from TEA through a public records request, starting in the 2017-18 school year, 13 districts were formally engaged in Lone Star Governance. We were wary of drawing conclusions about Lone Star Governance from such a small group of districts over one year. So we tracked accountability score changes between 2018 and 2023 for all districts that had been involved in Lone Star Governance in 2018 and 2019. In this time, overall district accountability ratings for Lone Star Governance districts declined 12.4 points, a much steeper decline than those districts not using that model (7.4-point decline). The gap in average accountability ratings actually widened between districts using Lone Star Governance and those that didn't. In 2018, the average accountability rating in Lone Star Governance districts was only two points below other districts (84 vs. 86 points). By 2023, this gap widened to seven points (74 vs. 81 points). Several districts that were required to adopt Lone Star Governance five years ago are now facing potential state intervention because of a lack of progress on improving student outcomes. TEA required the program in Houston ISD, where trainees have characterized Lone Star Governance as 'a fear-based system of control' where 'any sort of independent thought is not tolerated.' Houston ISD's accountability rating has declined since its forced adoption of Lone Star Governance. Fort Worth ISD adopted Lone Star Governance in 2018, but, similarly, the district's state accountability ratings have declined. TEA has forced Austin ISD to adopt Lone Star Governance twice — first in 2016 and again in 2024. Yet, Austin ISD has not experienced substantial improvement in its state accountability ratings. The need for repeated training calls into question the effectiveness of Lone Star Governance and begs the question: Who is benefiting from this costly, unproven training? In 2024, Austin ISD was required to pay $60,000 to a national organization called the Council of Great City School (CGCS) for Lone Star Governance training and coaching. The person who leads CGCS's governance efforts — including facilitating Lone Star Governance workshops across the state — is AJ Crabill, a former TEA deputy commissioner who was appointed in 2016 by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. Texas is unique in that the state has unilateral authority to require districts to spend funds on this unproven school board training. However, several districts across the United States have also adopted Crabill's governance training — nationally known as Student Outcomes Focused Governance. The effectiveness of this training in these districts is now under scrutiny, too. For example, Seattle Public Schools has spent approximately $300,000 on Student Outcomes Focused Governance and has seen little academic progress. Texans care about the efficient use of taxpayer dollars, especially when it comes to educating our state's children. Requiring already-cash-strapped districts spend public tax dollars on unproven training with zero evidence of effectiveness is the opposite of efficient. Instead, state interventions should prioritize proven strategies, such as evidence-based professional development for teachers and investments into mental health supports for students. Rachel S. White is an associate professor, and David DeMatthews is a professor of education, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Required 'Lone Star' training isn't helping school districts | Opinion
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Union leader says dozens of Houston ISD custodial, maintenance jobs at risk
HOUSTON - Dozens of maintenance and custodial workers in Houston ISD could soon be out of a job, according to the union that represents them. Hector Mireles, president of the Texas Support Personnel Employees Local 1, tells FOX 26, that an estimated 60 to 70 positions — including supervisory roles — are expected to be eliminated as part of a district-wide restructuring effort. In a memo dated May 20, distributed to a number of staff members, a meeting to discuss "a reduction in force" is set for Thursday afternoon. According to Mireles, the district has informed workers they will have the opportunity to reapply for their positions, potentially at a lower pay rate. "That's what the concerns and issues that a lot of the employees are discussing and worried about," Mireles said. The possible cuts are raising alarms among staff members who say they are already stretched thin and are now preparing for hurricane season and the critical summer cleaning period. "We're in the middle of preparing for hurricane season. How are we going to prepare for our summer cleaning that we've done for years and years?" Mireles said. "The most important thing is who's going to be responsible that the chemicals employees use to clean the school are not mixed? If someone uses the wrong chemicals, and a student in summer school gets sick, what are we going to do?" He warned that removing experienced supervisors could put students and staff at risk, especially if hazardous materials are mishandled. In addition to possible custodial cuts, positions in the maintenance department—including HVAC specialists—are also on the chopping block, according to Mireles. That's raising more concerns, especially with rising temperatures and reports from parents of air conditioning issues on several campuses. "We hire outside companies to come in and fix it, when we have personnel in place that can diagnose the actual problem," Mireles said. "Instead of paying an outside company four to five hours of labor, we have people now, without cuts, that can save thousands of dollars." Mireles said his union has a meeting scheduled with HISD officials next week to discuss the proposed cuts. He questioned whether the district is prioritizing the safety and well-being of its workers and students. This year's move mirrors a similar round of layoffs from April 2024, when approximately 150 support staff were let go, with HISD citing budget constraints at the time. In response to FOX 26's inquiry about the possible cuts, HISD issued a statement: The union says it will continue to advocate for the retention of experienced staff. The Source FOX 26 Reporter Sherman Desselle spoke with Hector Mireles, president of the Texas Support Personnel Employees Local 1.
Newsweek
08-05-2025
- General
- Newsweek
Texas Teachers Face Mass Layoff Despite Shortage
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The largest school district in Texas has informed more than 400 uncertified teachers that they will not be allowed to return for the 2025-26 school year despite staffing shortages, the Houston Chronicle reported. On Monday, the Houston Independent School District told the affected employees that they could not return because they had not made "adequate progress" toward earning their certification, according to the newspaper. Newsweek has contacted Houston ISD for comment via email. A Texas flag inside an elementary school in Murphy, Texas, on December. 3, 2020. A Texas flag inside an elementary school in Murphy, Texas, on December. 3, 2020. LM Otero/AP Photo Why It Matters School districts in Texas have increasingly relied on uncertified teachers to fill classroom vacancies after teachers left the profession in droves following the COVID-19 pandemic. Houston ISD saw the percentage of uncertified teachers grow from 12 percent in October 2023 to 19 percent in October 2024. Almost 11 percent of all teachers in Texas were uncertified in the 2023-24 school year, up from 3.2 percent in the 2018-19 school year, state data showed. The rise in uncertified teachers has sparked concern about teacher retention and student achievement. What to Know Houston ISD hires uncertified teachers with the expectation that they earn certification within two years. A district spokesperson told the Chronicle that the teachers had regular progress checks and prior warnings about the consequences of failing to get certified. Separately, Houston ISD announced in April that 733 teachers—about 7 percent of the district's teacher workforce—would be recommended for contract nonrenewal because of their performance. All in all, 1,139 teachers are not expected to return to their roles next year: the 406 uncertified teachers and the 733 recommended for contract nonrenewal. Hundreds of teaching jobs have also been cut elsewhere in the state ahead of the 2025-26 school year, with some districts citing budget deficits. What People Are Saying A Houston Independent School District spokesperson told the Chronicle: "While some of these employees are eligible to move to other roles in the district, including as apprentice teachers, there is not currently an estimate of how many will choose to apply and how many will be hired into other roles." Raise Your Hand Texas, an education advocacy group, said on its website: "Students with uncertified teachers lose four months of learning in reading and three months in math unless the teacher has previous experience working in a public school. And while subject matter expertise is important, teaching is both a science and an art. The kind of thorough preparation and mastery of concepts that certification signifies is essential to an outstanding teacher workforce." What Happens Next Houston ISD is set to hold hiring fairs over the summer in a bid to fill teacher vacancies.
