Road map to transformation
HISD has strengths to build on but a long way to go to get the results its students deserve.
Nearly everyone in Houston agrees HISD needs improvement. But after so many years of mixed results, the central question is how. Some districts have tried installing an all-charter school system, as in New Orleans. Other districts, as in Buffalo, have combined wraparound services and universal free college. If there were any simple solutions, they’d have fixed the problem years ago.
What reforms might work best here in Houston, where HISD must close achievement gaps, lift up underperforming schools and create equity in a district where nearly 80 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, 91 percent are children of color and nearly onethird are English Language Learners ?
To find answers to that question, the editorial board spoke to nearly two dozen educators, experts and parents. HISD administrators declined interview requests.
What we heard, again and again, is that there must be an emphasis on the basics: good teachers, good school leaders, wraparound services that tend to emotional and social needs of students — and a functioning school board that puts children first.
The goal: To close the achievement gap and boost opportunity
In Camden, N.J., a former superintendent who oversaw a wave of reforms and the district’s turnaround began his tenure with a 100-day listening tour, meeting with students, parents, educators and community members. Closer to home, in Spring Branch ISD, a group of community members, parents, students, teachers and
administrators participated in a “visioning process” to determine the district’s strategic direction, said former superintendent Duncan Klussmann, now a professor of education at the University of Houston.
In that district, the goal was to double the number of kids who completed some form of higher education, technical training or military service. Every decision made after that was in service of that goal, Klussman said.
In Houston, the short-term goal will be for the district to see enough improvement to exit state oversight. That won’t happen until Wheatley High scores at C or better on state accountability ratings for two years in a row, and no other schools stay on “improvement required” status for five years or longer.
But writ largely, the goal will be for achievement gaps to shrink throughout HISD and for students to have roughly equal chances at success across every campus.
First, attack the root cause
Success requires addressing not only academic needs, but also the social and economic forces that can make it harder for children to learn. Poverty, segregation, homelessness, family violence, immigration status and high mobility rates all contribute to low test scores and poor graduation rates. HISD’s extensive wraparound services — everything from intensive counseling and mentoring to winter coats and free bus passes — should continue but with improved coordination, funding and consistency.
But even that is only a bandaid. Ruth Lopez Turley, founder of the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), says reformers too often focus on “symptoms” rather than “root causes” of academic inequality. As a result, factors like stillprevalent segregation are overlooked.
Turley is right, but tackling school segregation is a huge task, one that remains a stubborn problem in districts across the country.
HISD would be wise to study what works and what doesn’t in San Antonio, New York City, Dallas and other cities trying to solve the issue of segregation and replicate those models here.
Start early
Early childhood education must be another priority. Copious research has shown that high quality pre-K helps close racial and socio-economic achievement gaps and boosts school readiness. HISD poured $22 million into its full-day pre-K last year and now offers the program in 900 classrooms.
Still, more should be done. Morath, who says the appointed board should make early childhood intervention a priority, said 10,000 pre-K eligible children in Houston are not enrolled in the program. Some may be attending private schools or receiving services elsewhere, and the success in all-day pre-K should not be discounted, but Morath is likely right to argue many others are slipping through the cracks. HISD must increase outreach and marketing to reach as many children as possible.
Put good teachers where they are needed
Good teachers are at the core of successful school systems. HISD must put master teachers where they are most needed. HISD already offers $5,000 bonuses to teachers who move to underperforming campuses. That may need to be increased, and in any case money is not enough. The district must develop an effective evaluation system to identify the teachers best suited for challenging schools; teachers, in turn, need resources, administrative support — and other effective teachers.
That’s the basis for the ACE model used in Dallas ISD, where a cadre of highly-skilled teachers receive stipends and professional support to work in struggling schools.
Better principals mean better schools
As any teacher — or parent — knows, building a successful school begins with a strong principal. In HISD, which operates on a decentralized funding system, that is even more vital. Here, many decisions about staffing, services and even curriculum are made at the campus level. That’s a key strength of HISD, and is a strong magnet when recruiting for top campus leaders. But it also requires a principal who is not only knowledgeable about academic matters, but one who is adept at managing a budget and leading a large team.
Those skills can be hard to find in a single person. Too often, HISD principals lack the training and guidance required for a decentralized system to operate properly. The Legislative Budget Board, which recently completed an exhaustive performance review of the district, found that some school leaders could not properly schedule lunches, leaving many students without enough time to eat. Parent Heather Golden told the editorial board that it can sometimes be difficult to get answers from campus leaders. Naomi Doyle-Madrid, whose three children attend HISD, said she has seen some principals struggle with financial tasks.
More stringent principal training, which includes better coaching and mentoring for less experienced or struggling campus leaders, is much needed. As is more accountability for those who fail to meet school improvement plan goals.
Fix the school board
Making any kind of seismic shift, however, requires a functioning school board, something that HISD has long been lacking. Morath blamed much of the failings in the district on the elected trustees, saying they had abdicated their responsibilities.
“It’s not an accident. It is a result of what happens at the top,” Morath said of the district’s inability to close achievement gaps. “There are not enough layers in a bureaucracy even as big as Houston to protect teachers from the foolishness of their school board members.”
A top priority for the board of managers must be to put in place procedures and guidelines that will build the foundation for the elected trustees that will eventually take over governance of the board. The LBB review recommends hiring a professional mediator to run teambuilding sessions, developing a formal self-policing structure to address violations of ethics policies and enforcing board policies.
Misconduct, squabbles and political posturing by board members must become a thing of the past. HISD leaders must be willing to throw out what is not working and to try out something new. From now on, students must be put front and center.
A road map
Few of these reforms will meaningful, or even possible, if the district doesn’t first become more efficient in how it spends its money, and more adept at managing contracts.
For example, the LBB review found that the district has paid $27 million to an outside custodial vendor since December, 2017, duplicating services already provided by HISD custodial staff. An alternative certification program has had an annual net loss of about $200,000 to $500,000 over the last three years while producing only 221 teachers, according to data provided to the Editorial Board in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act. Of those, only 149 are still employed by the district, which employs a total of more than 11,500 teachers. The district should eliminate or revamp those programs.
It also needs to pare down top-heavy administrative ranks, which the LBB concluded take away needed resources from classrooms and create an unwieldy bureaucracy that makes it hard to get things done. That would make the district operations more nimble, more responsive to the needs of students and teachers, and more efficient.
The LBB estimated that following all 94 of its recommendations could save HISD $237 million over the next five years, but following even a handful would free up resources to go where they are most needed: the campus and classroom.
That’s where the real change must be centered.