For the first time in its history, Wheatley High School has earned an “A” accountability rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The milestone carries weight in Houston, since it was Wheatley’s seventh consecutive failing grade in 2019 that triggered the state’s takeover of the entire Houston Independent School District. Three years into the intervention, the Fifth Ward campus’s turnaround is now central to the case that state control could be winding down.
“Wildcats, we have something big to celebrate,” Wheatley Principal Crystal Blanchard told students at a gathering in celebration of the new grade. “Getting an A is an incredible accomplishment, but our next job is to stay there and go even higher, because at Wheatley, excellence is the standard.”
Overall, HISD received a ‘B’ grade, the same as last year.
A campus that defined the takeover
Wheatley’s F rating in 2019 set off a legal process that culminated in 2023, when the state replaced HISD’s elected board with a board of managers and installed Mike Miles as superintendent. The school clawed back to a C in 2022, slipped to a D in 2023, then a ‘B’ in 2024, and then produce an ‘A’ this year.
North Forest High School, annexed into HISD in 2013 after its own district was shut down by the state, also earned its first-ever A rating this year.
District-wide, HISD says it has more than doubled the number of A- and B-rated schools since 2023, from 93 to 205, while the number of D- or F-rated schools has fallen from 120 to 13. Every HISD middle and high school is now out of D/F status, and the number of A-rated secondary schools has more than tripled, from 16 to 49.
At a press conference addressing the ratings, Miles put the district’s overall accountability score at 85 points, up from 72 four years ago, a 13-point gain he noted outpaced peer districts like Dallas.
Something to celebrate?
Blanchard framed the achievement as the product of three years of academic growth.
When Miles took the stage, he addressed criticism he’s drawn as the state-appointed superintendent.
“I get a lot of criticism, but I only get mad about one thing,” Miles said. “I get mad when people do not celebrate the success of Black and brown kids.”
He credited to the reforms he implemented in HISD, often deemed controversial by HISD parents.
“We raised expectations. We made it more rigorous,” he added. “But guess what? All of you rose to the level of expectation…And there are some people out there, despite your success will still not believe in you. And I’m sorry about that.”
Valedictorian and recent Wheatley graduate Thomas Johnson III, now a “Miles Ahead Scholar,” returned to address current students, tying the rating to a message about overcoming perception.
“Where you come from does not determine where you are going,” Johnson said. “We all know that the environment around us can influence us. Sometimes people look at us and look at the community and think of us as nothing but just another hood or the ghetto. But I’m here to tell you, you are so much more than that…Your neighborhood does not determine your intelligence. Your zip code does not determine your future. If you’re still in high school, my message is simple: Finish strong.”
He urged high schoolers to get involved in college-access programs, crediting resources like the TRIO program and Urban Scholars for helping fund his path to college.
A viral video complicates the celebration
Days before the ratings were announced, Wheatley career and technical education teacher Darius Williams posted a video that went viral.
“I simply don’t know where the problem is,” Williams said in the video. “This is only day two, and I have seniors who simply cannot read and seniors who cannot write.”
The clip drew nearly 5 million views and national attention, arriving just as the campus prepared to celebrate its ‘A’.
Miles did not dispute the substance of Williams’ claim when reporters asked about it at the ratings press conference.
“Is that new information? I don’t think that’s new information,” he said. “Four years ago, there were many more students who could not read at grade level or do math at grade level. Where was the outrage, if there’s outrage over that video or post, where was that in 2023?”
At a school board meeting, Miles elaborated on it further.
“We’ve always had this. Four years ago, it was worse… So it’s serious business.”
What does the grade mean for the takeover?
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Friday that the state takeover should be resolved “relatively soon,” suggesting a return to local electoral control could come before his previously stated 2027 deadline.
To exit state control, HISD must clear three benchmarks, including no multi-year “academically unacceptable” or failing campuses, better board governance focusing on student outcomes, and compliance with special education requirements
The district is not quite there.
“I get a lot of criticism, but I only get mad about one thing…when people do not celebrate the success of Black and brown kids.”
Mike Miles, Houston ISD superintendent
Four elementary schools, Benavidez, Foster, Highland Heights, and Mading, received F ratings this year, a step back after HISD eliminated failing schools in the 2024-25 cycle.
Morath said the state’s real concern is multi-year failure, not occasional stumbles.
Special education remains a more complicated variable as HISD is under a federal civil rights investigation over its reorganization of services for students in self-contained classrooms.
“The key is, regardless of how that goes, we want to see special education services improve in Houston, so this will be one of the primary goals for them over the course of this school year,” Morath said.
