HISD at a crossroads

• “Time for radical improvement” (Dec. 26, A13)

• “Learning from others’ and our own past” (Dec. 27, A11)

• “Road map to transformation” (Dec. 29, A23)

• “A call to action” (Dec. 30, A13)

The editorials call for “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.” Laudable goals to be sure, and certainly necessary. Where, however, is the goal or effort to get parents intimately involved in the education of their children? Studies have proven that when parents show interest, demand school performance, positively interact with teachers and administrators and are actually a part of their children’s education, the child performs above average. Without a goal and a plan to encourage parental involvement, the road map will be a pathway that leads HISD exactly to where it is today. Kenneth G. Campbell, Cypress

Given the comments on the lack of management skills for principals in the “Road Map to Transformation” column, an ongoing management training program for current and future principals and administrators is in order. The University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business provides ongoing development programs for executives, managers and high-potential employees for very large global to smaller local organizations. These organizations see the value in developing leadership talent. HISD should as well. Many of the programs offered by Bauer and other business colleges are customized to fit the organization’s specific needs. Based on the current HISD need, a program could be developed rather quickly that would start with several one- or two-day sessions on finance, budgeting and leadership. These could be followed with one- or two-day sessions each month to further develop talent in areas such as human resources, project management, data analytics, management information systems and so on. Gary Randazzo, Spring

When people have choices, customer service must be at its best, and access to the services that the entity provides must be transparent and continuously monitored. HISD had excelled at some campuses, yet the district as a whole is not performing. It is time to listen and align consistently to meet the needs of the children. Wraparound services are awesome, yet the individuals must understand the dynamics of the community. District content leaders should go back to aligning feeder patterns. I have seen a middle school experience amazing leaps and bounds with children but the high school not adapt and communicate to ensure continuity at the next step. Shawn Rushing, Houston

No matter who is sitting at the HISD dais in 2020 — whether elected trustees or TEA appointed — they should focus on several key issues that our dysfunctional board failed to accomplish over their past two years together. First, they must create a culture of professional governance where decisions are squarely focused on improving students’ abilities to read and do math at least on grade level and graduate collegeor career-ready. Second, they should provide a definition of “equity” for HISD — one that guides not only resource allocation to campuses, but also the distribution of high-quality teachers and principals, programmatic and ancillary supports, and more. They should hire a third party to conduct an equity audit of the district based on their definition to have a baseline and set measurable goals, and urge the TEA that whoever is hired as permanent superintendent has a leadership philosophy aligned with their definition. Third, from the board down to every campus, there must be significant improvements in informing and engaging community members and parents through the use of both translation services/devices and meaningful small-scale interactions. HISD is one of the largest, most diverse districts in the country and has a sizable non-English speaking population, and many current communication strategies and opportunities leave too many families out. These measures would build on HISD’s strengths (such as its growing wraparound services) and lay the foundation for stability, longterm strategic planning and harnessing the support of more stakeholders to help HISD’s kids. Jennifer Moren Cross, Bellaire

You are not serving your readers or the citizens of Houston with your continued blind faith in the TEA takeover of HISD. How could you print an editorial comparing HISD’s graduation numbers to Fort Worth but fail to mention that overall, Fort Worth is an inferior school district?

According to the TEA’s 2019 accountability ratings, Fort Worth has an overall “C” (79) rating compared to HISD’s “B” (88) rating and 53 percent of Fort Worth’s graduates meet college, career and military readiness standards versus HISD’s 63 percent. Then there is the difference in STAAR performance. Only 67 percent of Fort Worth students approach grade level or better versus HISD’s 72 percent. Any layperson reading your editorial would have incorrectly come away with the impression that Fort Worth ISD was far superior to HISD.

You and I don’t have to agree about the TEA takeover, but you have a journalistic obligation to present the facts accurately. Ann Eagleton, Houston

Please reconsider your position in this matter. Please ask major college experts to examine the reading grade level of the many STAAR tests issued by TEA since the beginning of STAAR — from ELA tests to other core tests. Please let these experts provide best-expert facts/estimates as to whether TEA and its for-profit test companies have inflated the STAAR tests above and beyond tested grade level, even now the STAAR reading tests. Please also examine the policy extremism of using the alleged failures of some students to stain and ruin the records of other students and staff/districts and the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who profit.

Please also examine the mass budget cuts, mass Chapter 313 diversions of funds to foundation funds of wealthy school districts — all the while denying, reducing and denying medical care for the poor in Texas. How in the world would going on bended knee to the TEA (the same ones who long-denied special education care — and the Texas politicians who have long denied medical care for the poor) — help these children of HISD? Jerry Brown, Dayton

HISD already performs well by Texas standards. Overall, it is rated higher than or within a single point of the other five largest districts. If the Chronicle’s Editorial Board is going to tout DISD and FWISD as models for HISD then you shouldn’t cherry-pick statistics.

TEA has not demonstrated that it has the expertise to provide valuable input on improving student outcomes. Despite this lack of credibility, Board of Managers candidates must be indoctrinated into TEA’s mindset on good governance through an immersive two-day training. TEA’s focus on student outcomes, narrowly defined as “what students know and can do,” creates a greater focus on flawed measures such as standardized test scores instead of meaningful alternatives that emphasize socioemotional wellness.

Black students and teachers require intentional research-based cultural interventions. To seriously address challenges at schools like Wheatley means to make socioemotional supports for black students and teachers an explicit district priority.

Magnet schools are HISD’s unavoidable third rail. To talk about magnet schools as one of the district’s opportunities for expansion without acknowledging the intimate connection of challenges such as transportation, teacher retention and student achievement is at best misleading. To privilege magnet schools in talks of reform is at best foolish. Jaison Oliver, Houston