Military man Mike Miles has launched his overhaul of Houston’s public schools, and parents and teachers are alarmed. Miles previously failed in Dallas, but that has not dimmed his authoritarian style. Trained for school leadership by the Broad Academy, which admires authoritarian style, Miles was imposed on Houston as part of a state takeover.
The state education department is led by non-educator Mike Morath but controlled by Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott hates Houston, because its a Democratic city. The takeover was triggered by the “failure” of one high school, Wheatley, which enrolls higher proportions of students with disabilities than other high schools. Miles, however, has far exceeded his mandate by firing the staff at 29 schools—not just Wheatley—and telling staff to re-apply for their jobs. Miles now sees himself as an education expert and has declared his grandiose ambition to create a “New Education System” (NES), to show the nation how it’s done.
Parents, teachers, and students at the schools that Miles is disrupting are outraged.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Elmore Elementary School was never perfect, but Kourtney Revels felt prospects were improving for the northeast Houston campus. A new principal, Tanya Webb, had taken the helm in December, and while Revels didn’t approve of every move she made, she admired the newcomer’s initiative.
Revels and other parents had long been frustrated, for example, that the school bus would often arrive late in the afternoon because kids would act up on board. So the principal took matters into her own hands — she, or another staff member, began riding the bus home with students, to make sure their behavior stayed in line. Now, Revels’ third grader, Judith, arrives home faster from school.
“Going that one extra mile took a burden off of parents who were waiting an hour, two hours, three hours for their kid to come from down the street,” Revels said.
It remains to be seen if Elmore parents can count on the practice to continue. Webb, along with the majority of staff members at 28 other schools in northeast Houston, has to reapply for her job as part of a major shakeupannounced by new Superintendent Mike Miles on his first day in office.
“I do see a little bit of turnaround since she came in this year but she’s only been here since December,” Revels said. “And now she has to reapply for her job.”
Radical changes
The 29 schools in the New Education System program that Miles announced on June 1 will likely look radically different when doors open to students on Aug. 28. For starters, kids might be greeted by an entirely new roster of teachers, administrators and support staff; all employees besides custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and nurses have to reapply for their jobs.
Miles has already said that librarians will likely be removed from NES schools, though he promised that they, along with all other teachers, principals, assistant principals and counselors who are already under contract, will be guaranteed similar jobs with the same salary at other schools if they are not brought back. Other staff members have received no such guarantees.
Teachers who do return will make over $90,000 after factoring in various stipends offered for teaching at high-need schools, and be supported by teaching apprentices and learning coaches who will handle much of the supplementary work such as grading and classroom preparation.
The application process is already underway for principals and teachers. NES principals will be selected by June 23, and teachers by July 3.
But staffing changes are just part of the transformation coming to NES schools. Curriculum will be standardized across campuses and lesson plans prepared for teachers in advance. Classes will be recorded via webcam, and students who are pulled from class for disruptive behavior will be sent to another room to watch the streamed class. Magnet offerings such as STEM and dual language programs “will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis” and may be cut.
Emails shared with the Houston Chronicle from principals to their staff suggest school leaders will be observing teachers every day, and that schools will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day for free childcare before and after school, with teachers serving four supervisory shifts per month. Miles is also bringing the Dyad program that he had introduced at his charter school network, Third Future Schools, to the NES schools, in which community members will teach students in extra-curriculars, such as sports or arts twice a week, according to emails shared with the Chronicle.
Miles says the changes put students’ most fundamental needs at the forefront by allowing teachers to focus purely on instruction.
“We will be aligning our resources—especially our most effective teachers and principals—to better serve students in underserved communities,” Miles said. “For students who need to catch up and in schools that have failed for years, we will be offering more instructional time.”
Miles has repeatedly stated that he understands the concerns emanating from many in the HISD community, but that he hopes improvements at the schools will eventually win their trust.
“Change brings some anxiety, and there will be some anxiety most of the summer, probably, but we will keep putting information out there so that we can turn that anxiety into hope,” Miles said during his first week in office.
‘Pugh es nuestra familia’
Several parents at Pugh, Martinez and other northeast Houston elementary schools gathered Thursday morning with their children at the Denver Harbor Multi-Service Center to protest the potential removal of teachers from their A-rated schools, before traveling to HISD headquarters to bring their complaints to the district. Children held signs with their teachers’ names — Ms. Rodriguez, Ms. Arguelles, Mr. Infante — and pleas to keep them in place. “Pugh es nuestra familia,” one sign read.
“Every morning, everyone from the principal to the office staff, custodians and cafeteria workers, they greet our children with a smile. I think the kids forget the problems they have at home when they go to school. We don’t want new teachers, we want the same teachers because they’ve been our second family at Pugh,” said Nancy Coronado, a parent volunteer at Pugh for 13 years, in Spanish.
Her son, Ricardo Delgado, graduated from fifth grade at Pugh this year. He discussed his favorite teacher, Ms. Lopez, and how she was a warm, familiar presence to him even before he’d ever taken her class. Now set to start at the Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan Middle School in the fall, Delgado credits Ms. Lopez with teaching him the reading skills he’ll need in middle school.
“If other teachers come, it wouldn’t be the same because she’s been there since I was 6 years old,” Delgado said.
The plan to have teachers reapply for their job has left other Houston parents with mixed feelings. Karmell Johnson, a Fifth Ward mother of three students at NES schools, said there are “pros and cons” to the situation. She welcomes the opportunity to remove under-performing teachers, but worries that some effective teachers, who understand the community they’re serving in and may have formed bonds with students, may be caught up in the mix.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster. Once a bond is established and they rip that out, the kids have to get used to their teachers, the teachers have to get used to the schools, and it’s going to take some time. It’s going to be uncomfortable for everybody,” Johnson said.
Uncertain future for teachers, staff
At many NES schools, however, teacher and principal turnover has already become a fact of life. It was only 10 years ago that North Forest High School was completely reconstituted when the Texas Education Agency ordered North Forest ISD to be absorbed into Houston ISD, and after a brief upswing, it has failed 80 percent of its TEA evaluations since (it passed this year with a C). Wheatley High School replaced a significant portion of their teachers just last year.
Ainhoa Donat, a bilingual fourth grade teacher at Paige Elementary, said she worked with a different fourth-grade colleague in each of her six years at the Eastex/Jensen school.
Donat said she was told by her principal that the school would no longer offer a bilingual program, and that she was welcome to apply for a standard teaching position at the school (the district, in a statement, said that NES schools “will now have a dedicated English Language Arts block for English language development,” which “includes bilingual support for emerging English speakers based on their proficiency level”).
With 16 years of experience at HISD under her belt, the extra money being offered wasn’t enough for Donat to overcome the indignity of being blamed for the school’s low performance. She’s currently in the process of applying for a bilingual job at another HISD campus.
“I have a lot of experience and I work super hard, so when I went to that meeting and the superintendent (basically) said ‘you didn’t do your job,’ I felt really humiliated,” Donat said.
One longtime teacher at Martinez Elementary School, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said she worries that the financial incentives may “entice the wrong people.”
“I would give it back to stay at Martinez,” she said. “There are some teachers who are all about the money… but not at our school.”
The fear is even more acute for support staff, who aren’t guaranteed positions.
One administrative assistant, who has worked for over 20 years at an NES elementary school and also asked to remain anonymous, said she may be forced to retire early if she isn’t rehired. The assistant has spent almost her entire career with HISD and doesn’t know what else she could do.
She wonders who will manage the payroll, procure supplies for teachers, plan field trips and do all the other unseen tasks that keep a school running if support staff are eliminated.
“All I’ve ever known is HISD, getting up and going to work at these schools. We’re not here for the money, we’re here for the children,” she said. “You talk about the children but what are you doing for them? You’re taking their teachers away, and its very upsetting.”Parents, students and community activists gather near Pugh Elementary to protest the potential replacement of their children’s teachers by HISD on Thursday, June 15, 2023 in Houston.Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Written By
Sam González Kelly is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
You can reach Sam at sam.kelly@chron.comVIEW COMMENTS
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What Miles is proposing is typical of the top down state takeovers in which non-educators design the plan. Frankly, I cannot understand how Miles can separate planning from instruction as what is planned is connected to how instruction will be implemented. I cannot see an assistant effectively planning instruction. It seems counterproductive at best. Under this plan Houston may lose some wonderful teachers whose students score lower on standardized tests including special education, ESL and those that teach high needs schools.
Bilingual education has always been a very hard sell to politicians that never want to wait for results. When bilingual ed. is done well, it can be a great asset to students. Eliminating bilingual classes fits into the xenophobic beliefs of right wing extremists, but ELLs will need continuous content support for at least three years. Cutting librarians is a tragic mistake as a good library should be the heart of every school, IMO. It is all more of the ‘shake and bake, slash and burn’ playbook of so-called reform.
Miles has the assurance and arrogance of a military man who attended the sham Broad Academy. He has all the answers, yet he was pushed out in Dallas after three years of failure to raise scores and a massive teacher exodus. As a military man, he should know that you can’t lead when the troops think you don’t know what you are doing.
It is really sad to see the proliferation of a “command and compel” theory of education being imposed by political leaders across many states—people who know nothing about child development and the psychology of education. I feel so sad for our teachers and for the students whose needs will not be served—and worried for our society as we lose many fine teachers.
In the early 1990s I was teaching art at a junior high school in Charlotte. The superintendent of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools encouraged principals of struggling schools to displace their entire staff and require them to reapply. At the time, I had a successful Art program that had resulted in the addition of a second art teacher because of the popularity of art at my school. One thing I was very transparent about with all of my principals was the goal to teach and coach in high school. That year there were a number of high school openings where I was a competitive candidate. The last work day at school we were all told we would have to reapply for our jobs, not matter our success or struggle. I was upset because I saw this as an albatross around my neck that impacted my reputation when applying at other schools. I made no effort to reapply at my school out of anger as the high school positions went to other candidates. I finally made an appointment with the principal in early August and we agreed that I would come back to the school. What this principal learned was that displacement did not guarantee highly qualified new applicants and it embittered the high quality teachers he did have. Our school did not have a good reputation with the community, although we had many staff who were doing impressive work in a school with growing poverty, and new applicants did not come knocking on the school’s door. Many years later the principal told me that displacing the staff was his biggest professional mistake. One of the big misconceptions of corporate reformers is that they believe there are unlimited numbers of highly qualified teachers waiting anxiously to replace those they deem unfit. It will be interesting to see how many teaching and principal positions in Houston go unfilled into the school year.
Broadies last a year or two tops. They are hired, they destroy, they are fired. The devastating effects of financial insolvency and deleterious policy are long lasting while the Broadies golden-parachute into thinky tanks. Hiring one of them is like hiring Gordon Gekko. Dumb.
I’m restraining myself from using the kind of language (military profanity) I want to use to describe Abbott and his fellow fascist appointee Mike Miles.
Mike Milies sounds like the kind of army officer who should avoid being in a combat zone because those kind usually ending up getting fragged or shot in the back by their own troops. From what I read, he was an Army Ranger.
I read his bio and saw no mention of him serving in combat. Combat vets have a name for officers like him — He may be an REMF. A Rear Echelon Mother F****r.
“Technically, a REMF was a support person who lived and worked in the relative safety of rear areas behind barbed wire, ate hot meals, took hot showers, and slept in a bed, usually in air-conditioned comfort. Loosely defined, a REMF was anyone who had it better than you.”
There is a huge difference in how the troops are treated in a combat zone vs on a base hundred if not thousands of miles from combat where the discipline is much harsher.
I think Miles was the kind of officer that thrives on a base far from combat.
He also was not a lifer, someone in the military that stays 20 years or more. From what I read, he left active duty after his first full enlistment contract. I think he may have been asked to leave because he was not suitable for a military career since he is allegedly an asshole.
I will not hold my breath waiting for these people to accept the responsibility for their failure, which will come as sure as a winter rain.
What is sad is that the Houston Public Schools with all its diversity and poverty is a sound system according to the state’s own rating system. A B rated school district should not be on the chopping block. What Abbott is doing is pure vindictive, political retribution.
Of course. That’s Abbott. Mean, vindictive.
Pretty easy to see the game.
Build everything around test prep. Centralized lessons, higher salaries for teachers of tested subjects, test score based teacher evaluation.
This isn’t better education. This is simply how to beat the test. Then claim improvement when it’s illusory.