Mike Miles is making the podcast rounds this summer, claiming credit for what he calls the transformation of HISD. He points to rising scores as proof of success and claims they are the result of ending a culture of low expectations.
We know better. Miles has manipulated who gets tested to inflate ratings. Our kids are not data points and our schools are more than ratings.
Raising school ratings should never come by moving students to new campuses like pieces on a chessboard or by denying students opportunity.
In late May, the district announced that 5,000 Special Education students in self-contained classrooms would be moved to new schools in the fall. In response, TEA has ordered “systemic corrections for all students with disabilities,” likely to avoid further scrutiny from the federal government. Many parents are filing complaints. Parents are understandably frustrated that this is happening to vulnerable students who need stability, routines, and supports, not endless change.
Given that TEA’s two conservators attended every Special Education chair meeting this year, it is difficult to believe that TEA did not already know about the plan the district had developed.
Most of these 5000 students take a different test called STAAR ALT 2, designed for Special Education students with the most significant cognitive disabilities whose instruction typically occurs in self-contained classrooms. Usually, over 90% of students pass STAAR ALT 2. The results are counted towards a school’s overall rating just like STAAR.
The students were not moved because specialized programs needed to be consolidated due to low enrollment. We believe Mike Miles is moving most of the students from better-resourced, higher-rated campuses such as Bellaire, Field, Horn, Kolter, Meyerland, and Twain to lower-rated campuses to create an opportunity for those schools to benefit from STAAR ALT results.
The result is that 10, 20, 30 or more students per school who are almost certain to pass the STAAR ALT are added to a campus’s accountability calculations. Those higher scores can boost a school’s rating without improving educational opportunities for the students who were already there or for the students who are being moved.
This puts Miles’ repeated refrain, “No F rated campuses,” in a new light. He appears to be managing schools like a company manages inventory, moving pieces around to improve the bottom line rather than addressing the underlying challenges. But children are not numbers to be shifted, balanced, or optimized. They are human beings whose education should never be sacrificed for the sake of a rating system. A superintendent’s job is not to make the scoreboard look better. It is to make sure every student receives the support, stability, and opportunities they deserve.
Join us on Sunday at 4:30 pm at the Houston Bakery to blockwalk for public education.
Do you like this page?