Even before the Board of Managers voted unanimously (is there ever any other vote these days?) Thursday night to adopt an administration plan calling for an ambitious boost to student STAAR scores in five years, HISD Superintendent Mike Miles solidified his position with even more statistics.
This time it was the district’s national NWEA scores measuring student achievement growth using what’s called an RIT (Rasch UnIT) measure for the beginning of the year (BOY – no it didn’t single out boys) and setting all those acronyms aside, the news wasn’t particularly good ifor Hispanic and Black students in the district.
For example, the national average score in reading for third graders was 186.6 at the beginning of the year. HISD’s white students exceeded that with a 196 average but Hispanic and Black students came in at 180 each. Since HISD is a predominantly minority district this means that most of its students are significantly trailing the national average.
Similar results were found in third grade math. Against a beginning of the year U.S. average in thirs grade of 188.5, white students scored 196, while Hispanics had 181 and Blacks 179.
Miles called the difference in the achievement data “startling.”
The charts — shown in their entirety at the end of this article — covered grades three through eight and showed similar findings throughout the grades. End of year scores will be reported in May.
Before getting to the scores presentation, the board (absent members Cassandra Auzenne Bandy and Adam Rivon) heard from public speakers each allotted one minute to make their case. Many signed up to address the board about Item 4 which allowed the board to waive the requirement for a second reading of its five year plan for goals and constraints and its mission statement — although the concerns the public speakers addressed had little to nothing to do with that agenda point.
Instead speakers expressed their continued displeasure with Miles and his administration, painting a picture of students and teachers living in fear amid what they say is a repressive atmosphere that seeks to punish them if they step out of line in any way.
In contrast, Miles said. “The reforms are working and kids are doing well,” noting he was visited about 50 school so far, most of them his New Education System or NES Aligned campuses.
Elected trustee Kathy Blueford-Daniels started things off by raising the complaint heard before that by moving teachers’ after school meetings from Wednesday to Thursdays, the district has made it impossible for nearly all teachers to address the board at the start of its 5 p.m. meetings.
Another elected school board member Myra Guidry said “You all have created a district of chaos.” She criticized the goals set by the administration calling for only a 1 percent improvement in academic scores for Black and Hispanic students with no increase set for white and Asian students.
“We went through a flood, we went through COVID, but not one time did we reduce our expectations,” she told the board.
The restrictions and possible punishments about teacher absences were frequently mentioned as well the the working situation regarded school nurses who have been required to work on weekends to provide vaccinations to students. This is being done without extra pay.
In a separate conversation outside of the meeting, HISD Human Resources Officer Jessica Neyman maintained that the district follows employment law about time off and in fact is more generous about absences than required by law.
She also said that nurses are exempt employees meaning they are required to work as needed.
Melanie Cantu was one of several students speaking in protest of the new bathroom policies which ban students from taking a bathroom break in the first 15 and last 15 minutes of the class day. Students also protested having to carry cones with them from class to outside the bathroom calling this dehumanizing.
Student Maria Mendez spoke against the cameras in each classroom saying as a result the students have no privacy. “And why is the camera on us? Why not of the teacher or the white board?”
The controversial decision by Miles to remove librarians from NES schools is not going away. Once again it was brought up by students and adults, some of whom charged the superintendent was dividing the district in two: those who have libraries and those who don’t.
The District of Innovation Plan concerning what waivers HISD will be seeking is due out soon. After a Wednesday night meeting with the District Advisory Committee, Miles said in a press conference after the board meeting, that there may be some changes from what the DOI committee originally proposed, specifically in the area of a request for blanket class size waivers.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
