Last week, when a jubilant Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles unveiled the results of a teacher survey, he said “the numbers clearly show” that teachers are committed to team HISD and its ongoing transformation.

Actually, no they don’t.

Actually that’s not true.

Survey results showed that of the 10,230 teachers who responded representing 93 percent of the Houston teaching force, a total of 96 percent said they wanted to stay with HISD, Miles said.

But after our story appeared about those impressive numbers — which explained some accompanying factors such as much higher pay for special ed teachers as well as English and math teachers at New Education Schools (Miles' new regime with a focus on timed tests) – we started hearing from teachers.

Who said they lied.

As one teacher explained: “Many teachers I know did not fill the survey out, and I know many who lied and said they were coming back because they don't have anything locked down yet, but they are actively looking.”

The teacher, who is at a high performing school, said fully a third of the staff wanted to leave. As the teacher put it, if this is the case at a high performing campus, what must it be like at one where academics aren’t going quite as well.

Some said they found out that if they said they didn’t want to come back, they were immediately switched to a separation notice to fill out. Teachers didn’t want to do this because it removed any confidentiality and their principal would have their name.

Actually, there was never any confidentiality. To our surprise. Results were passed on to each teacher's principal.

When we asked if answering that you weren’t coming back and receiving the pop-up withdrawal form moved that part of the survey out of the realm of confidential, this is the response we got from the HISD press office:

“The survey is not confidential and was not presented as such,” a statement from the press office said. And went on to say:

“The voluntary separation form is an optional-to-complete, but encouraged, screen that appears for the small number of respondents who selected this option. If not returning, we encourage taking the action of submitting a voluntary separation, future dated for the last working day. However, it is not required if employees need more time before taking that action.”

Imagine if you are a teacher with roughly three months to go in your current contract and you tell the district you plan to leave. It doesn’t even matter if you have a job lined up or not, those months are going to be a certain kind of hell.

And while there is an ongoing teacher shortage in most districts, say you want to go but you’re not one of the lucky ones scooped up by another school district. With bills to pay, you’re stuck where you are for another year, working for people who know you'd rather be elsewhere. Count on being uncomfortable at best.

Yes, some principals will be understanding and fine about your plans to leave. But teachers know the principals themselves are under a great deal of pressure and a mass exodus on their campus is not going to look good for them.

Think that’s the stuff of a bad novel?

A teacher at an NES high school said some at that teacher’s campus said colleagues answered "yes" on the survey  “due to fear of retaliation from the admin.” That teacher said many educators at that high school were busy looking at options in other districts and states. Their principal at a recent meeting had made troubling marks about moving on without a recommend from that administrator — which the teacher said could be taken "as a veiled threat."

If the district truly wanted to know how teachers felt about going or staying, they would have had an outside firm do an anonymous survey with no personal identifiable information attached to teacher responses.

If the district truly wanted to know how teachers felt about going or staying, they would have had an outside firm do an anonymous survey with no personal identifiable information attached to teacher responses.

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And then there's the 45-day rule. It comes into play 45 days before the first day of instruction. Under the Texas Election Code, public school teachers in Texas have till then to notify the district they are not going to honor their contract.

This year, because of the earlier start for the 2024-25 school year in HISD, that deadline which used to be in July is June 28.

Be one day late (or later in the school year) and the district can call for sanctions with the Texas Education Agency. Which means a one-year suspension of their teaching certification.

This school year, Miles cleared the way for teachers to leave without sanctions, saying that the district didn’t need teachers who didn’t want to be there. But as Jessica Neyman, head of the HISD Human Resources Department, said last week, that voluntary release policy may be ending.

The reason for it, after all, is to make sure there isn’t constant turnover for the students and a churning nightmare for the schools affected and the central HR office with hiring and rehiring.

Statistics can be manipulated to show anything. One of the assessments researchers learn early on to make is where is the data coming from and how reliable is it. What’s that old famous quote from Mark Twain? “Lies, damned lies and statistics.”

In the HISD survey results, 14 percent of teachers now at non-NES schools say they want to transfer to NES. That may be pretty accurate given the expected bump in their salaries. But as for the other data?

Yes, there are people who definitely want to stay in HISD. Ninety six percent of the survey respondents which were 93 percent of everyone sent the survey? Doubtful. Ninety-seven percent of teachers now at NES schools want to stay where they are? Also doubtful. Ninety percent of teachers at campuses that aren’t NES now but will be in the fall say they want to stay? Again, I just don’t know if that's real.

The answers aren't anonymous. They're in the teachers' permanent record.

Of course, not everyone lied. Some said they're staying because they are. A few said they were going for the same reason; it was the truth. This is not to discount teachers who have become true believers of Miles’ approach to education or those who are loyal to HISD no matter what the latest change in educational philosophy is running the district this time around.

Still, I’d venture to say that most HISD teachers are just trying to survive. Not being truthful in answering a non-confidential survey is one way to do that and should be seen as such, rather than as an overwhelming endorsement of the superintendent's new policies.