Despite district’s success, Wheatley’s grade puts board closer to state takeover
Houston ISD moved closer to losing local control over its school board Thursday when one of its schools received a seventh consecutive failing grade, casting a pall over an otherwise banner day for the state’s largest school district following the release of 2019 academic accountability ratings.
Scores unveiled Thursday show HISD’s Wheatley High School, a 92-year-old campus in Fifth Ward, again failed to meet Texas academic standards this year, likely triggering a state law that mandates severe sanctions against the district. Barring a successful appeal of Wheatley’s failing grade, which HISD leaders said is unlikely, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath must close the campus or replace the school board.
Morath has not said which option he would choose — he hastily left a press event Thursday in neighboring Aldine ISD — but his administration has strongly suggested it would strip power from HISD’s school board and appoint a new governance team.
As sanctions against HISD became more likely Thursday, educators and elected officials heralded HISD’s B grade for districtwide academic performance, as well as Kashmere High School meeting state standard for the first time in 11 years. The prospect of temporarily losing locally elected control over the district did little to dampen a joyous celebration at Kashmere, which some legislators had long derided as a poster child for failure in urban education.
“It’s been a long time coming, but a change has come to HISD. And a change has come to Kashmere High School,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan told a crowd of hundreds, backed by red-white-and-blue balloons and a sign declaring “#KashmereOut2019.”
Still, the success of Kashmere
and many of the district’s 280 schools — nearly 80 percent earned an A, B or C grade — came with the knowledge that major changes likely are coming to HISD.
If Morath opts to replace HISD’s much-maligned, nine-person school board, state law mandates he select new trustees and pick the district’s superintendent. The upheaval would mark another seismic shift in the district, which has been roiled by turmoil since the departure of former Superintendent Richard Carranza in March 2018 and a since-rescinded vote to replace Lathan in October 2018.
The possibility of state sanctions tied to Wheatley’s academic performance has divided the HISD community, often across ethnic, political and racial lines.
Supporters of the law requiring sanctions, including many Republican leaders, argue HISD’s school board has failed to create the conditions necessary to raise student achievement at schools such as Wheatley. Metrics including SAT scores and Advanced Placement exam results show many Wheatley students are unprepared to enter college or the workforce.
During an appearance with Morath on Thursday, state Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Humble, said HISD officials did not take advantage of funding opportunities and legislative maneuvers that could have staved off intervention. He cited the school board’s refusal to surrender control of long-struggling campuses to outside entities, an arrangement that could have temporarily prevented sanctions and brought an additional $1,800 per student to those campuses.
“We’ve given them every opportunity to be successful, and they continue to choose not to,” said Huberty, who chairs the Texas House’s Public Education Committee.
Opponents of the sanctions law, however, argue local voters should bear responsibility for shifting the district’s course through elections.
Several elected officials and HISD leaders on Thursday also noted the district raised its overall accountability rating from 84 last year to 88 this year, besting nearly all of the state’s large, urban districts.
“There should be no child that we throw away, no school that we throw away, no school that we close, no board that we get rid of,” U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, DHouston, told the crowd at Kashmere. “We should come together in unity.”
Texas rates schools on a traditional grade scale, with a 90 to 99 score earning an A grade, 80 to 89 resulting in a B grade, and so on. Districts are rated on raw achievement, student progress, performance relative to schools with similar poverty levels and success in closing gaps among demographic groups.
Three pass, one fails
The possibility of sanctions tied to chronically low-performing schools has hung over HISD for two consecutive years, contributing to instability in the 209,000student district.
Under a newly implemented state statute, 10 of HISD’s longest-struggling schools had to meet state standard and avoid their fifth consecutive failing grade in 2018 in order to avoid sanctions against the district.
Six of those campuses ultimately met standard in 2018, while four received accountability waivers due to Hurricane Harvey. In turn, that quartet of campus — Highland Heights Elementary School, Henry Middle School, and Kashmere and Wheatley high schools — had to meet standard this year.
Kashmere, which scored a dismal 49 last year, earned a 75 this year. The 26-point increase was the district’s largest.
“I hope this shows us we can do the impossible,” said Samaj Cager, a rising senior at Kashmere. “I hope it pushes us to do more than what we did today. It’s crazy where we’ve come from, because my ninth-grade year, it was not like this.”
Highland Heights and Henry squeaked by with scores of 64 and 60, respectively.
Wheatley would have received a score of 63, but the campus fell victim to a rule that automatically lowers a school’s score to 59 if it fails to meet standard in three of the four metrics used to calculate ratings. Texas Education Agency officials implemented the rule in 2018 as they finalized the state’s initial A-through-F rating model.
“It’s a system designed to create multiple paths by which you can demonstrate excellence, but at the same time, you still have to have safeguards to ensure we’re being honest with ourselves as to how we’re supporting students, and being honest with parents,” Morath said in a meeting with reporters earlier this week.
Wheatley’s near miss left HISD leaders frustrated with the rule Thursday.
“Certainly, we were expecting to make it, so it’s disappointing,” said Wheatley Principal Joseph Williams, entering his second full year as the school’s leader. “If anything, we just have to take away that we’re going to work harder and dig a little deeper.”
Wheatley’s failing grade was an outlier among HISD’s high schools, which anchored the district’s improved academic rating in 2019.
Several high schools traditionally among HISD’s lowest-performing emerged with C grades, including Kashmere, Madison, Sterling, Washington and Worthing. Two other long-struggling high schools, North Forest and Yates, narrowly missed C grades.
Twenty-one campuses, or 7.5 percent, were deemed failing. An identical number of schools did not meet state academic standards last year, though most received a Harvey waiver.
Accountability ratings, including Wheatley’s failing grade, will not become official until an appeals process wraps up in November or early December. Lathan said HISD staff will review Wheatley’s calculations, though an appeal does not appear imminent.
“At this point, we don’t see that we have any extenuating circumstances where we would need to appeal,” Lathan said.
TEA investigation
In the meantime, district leaders will continue implementing their Achieve 180 turnaround plan, which provides additional training and bonuses to staff working in lower-performing campuses, while analyzing the needs of campuses where accountability scores dropped this year.
“The district will continue to move forward,” Lathan said. “We’ve already experienced challenges over the past several years. My focus as interim superintendent, my administrators, my principals and teachers, our focus will continue to be on children.”
Even if HISD successfully appeals Wheatley’s rating, the district could lose local control over its school board due to a state investigation into multiple allegations of misconduct by HISD trustees.
The TEA is expected to finalize its investigation and any sanctions in the next several weeks.