During a Texas Senate committee hearing on education, state-appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles was pressed on his “high performance culture” claims.
Touting the school district’s letter grades, he honed in on closing the racial achievement gap.
The hearing focused on interim charges to improve school transformation talent and included Miles, two other superintendents, Bennie Mayes of Waller ISD, Terri Osborne, the area superintendent of Lender ISD, and Megha Kansra, who leads the department of district planning and supports at the Texas Education Agency. During the discussion, state lawmakers evaluated methods to strengthen academic performance.
Miles listed closing the minority achievement gap as one of his superintendency flashpoints, noting that HISD Black middle schoolers trailed their white peers in Math by 38 percentage points in 2023. Now, it is down to 22 percentage points.
“Criminal’s not the right word, but it’s something close,” Miles said during the hearing. “Negligent…Give us a couple more years, and that gap will be in the single digits. Then watch us race. Watch all the kids race when it’s more fair, when they have the same starting point.”
Pointing to NAEP (Nation’s Report Card) scores, Miles said Black and brown students “have not been served well,” but large urban-area school districts are “narrowing that fast.”
He attributed this to teacher training in “condition-setting measures” and accountability, calling it the “secret sauce” for achieving high scores in Houston, where principals are expected to spend 70% of their time in classrooms coaching instruction.
“They have to know what the challenge is when they walk into a classroom. They have to be able to provide suggestions on how to fix it,” said Miles, adding accountability, decision-making, quality instruction, and coaching for teachers and principals to the mix. “This is what distinguishes HISD from many other districts, and that is we expect leaders to change adult behavior, not just point it out, not just suggest what needs to be improved, but to lead in a way that changes behavior.”
But the root of the achievement gap in the first place is the “bigotry of low expectations” from Black, brown, and special needs students for three decades, which he considers to be “too low.”
“Autonomy should be earned”: Mike Miles
Miles, whose reforms, such as the New Education System (NES) instructional methods and AI-backed curricula, have been under scrutiny, prompting criticism from families and community members, also presented a slide deck on “what to do about persistent resistance to change.”
“The relationship between autonomy and performance, meaning autonomy should be earned, not just freely given,” he added.
HISD also introduced a pay-for-performance model for teacher salaries, with starting pay at $70,000 and a cap of $101,000.
When senators needed clarification
https://senate.texas.gov/videoplayer.php?vid=22858&lang=en
Texas Senator Paul Bettencourt pressed Miles on whether the gains reflected real improvement, citing reports that about 21,000 students had left the district, and asked whether the emphasis had been on lifting only the best performers.
Miles answered that the school district’s top-performing groups, Asian and white students, improved as well, but Black and Hispanic student groups improved at a faster rate, therefore closing the gap.
Pasadena and Aldine ISD, alongside other nearby school districts, also saw similar percentage declines in enrollment with no state interventions, he added, attributing the decline instead to lower birth rates and immigration.
“The relationship between autonomy and performance, meaning autonomy should be earned, not just freely given.”
Mike Miles, Superintendent of Houston ISD
Bettencourt also noted that the gap remains “quite significant” and asked whether the HISD approach to academics could be replicated elsewhere, given the high teacher pay.
Assuring him it could, Miles cited an average salary of $83,000 for returning teachers, a balanced budget, and a $700 million fund balance after absorbing previous ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, allotted funding through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act) funding deficits.
“You just have to be very fiscally responsible, and you cannot pay for all things,” Miles said. You cannot have all things. You have to pay for your leverage points.”
