Houston ISD Reveals School Ratings and Unveils New Education System Schools

Houston Independent School District (HISD) has released individual school ratings for the 2022-2023 academic year, utilizing state accountability data. Despite ongoing litigation, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) provided districts with the necessary data and methodology for calculating ratings and letter grades. HISD’s Assessment, Accountability, and Compliance Department, using TEA information and data actively sought by HISD in the past month, conducted the calculations.

The results indicate the following distribution among HISD schools:

• A rated schools: 35
• B rated schools: 58
• C rated schools: 52
• D rated schools: 65
• F rated schools: 58

New Education System (NES) Introduced for 2024-2025 Academic Year

The school ratings unveiled will play a crucial role in determining which schools will be part of the District’s New Education System (NES) in the upcoming school year (2024-2025). Key features of NES schools include:

• Innovative Staffing Model: Ensuring consistent high-quality instruction while allowing teachers to focus on core work and achieve better work-life harmony.
• Higher Salaries: Offering increased compensation for teachers and staff, differentiated based on the subject taught and rigorous evaluation systems for teachers and leaders.
• Specific Instructional Programs: Receiving extra resources and support to significantly enhance academic performance.
• Art of Thinking Courses: Teaching critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, along with the ability to assess, evaluate, and effectively use information.
• Specialty Classes: Offering courses in fitness, music and fine arts, 21st-century media and technology, and hands-on science. These classes, taught by community consultants with specific expertise, supplement existing electives and magnet programs.
• Free Trips: Providing students with opportunities to explore new places and cultures.

HISD initiated NES at 28 historically underperforming campuses in the fall of 2023. Additionally, 57 schools expressed interest in joining NES and are currently referred to as NES-aligned campuses for the current academic year (2023-2024). In the upcoming school year, HISD will eliminate the distinction between NES and NES-aligned schools, categorizing campuses as either NES (encompassing existing NES, existing NES-aligned, and new NES schools) or non-NES.

Six schools that received a low D (rating of 60 to 64) and 20 schools that received an F
(rating of 59 or below) that are not already NES or NES-aligned campuses will join the
NES in the fall of 2024. See the table immediately below for a list of these schools, their
accountability ratings, and their letter grades.

Schools That Will Join the NES In 2024-2025

Another 24 schools—those with a high D (rating of 65 to 69)—that are not already NES or
NES-aligned campuses have the option to be considered for the NES. The principals of
these schools will gather input from staff, families, and members of their Shared Decision
Making Committees to discuss the opportunity and will let the District know by February 7 if the
school is interested in being considered for the NES.

The District currently projects that it will be able to accept up to 14 high-D campuses for the
NES in the coming school year. HISD will select those campuses by February 9.

Schools Eligible for NES Consideration

“The ratings and letter grades released today are based on data from the 2022-2023 school
year. While there were bright spots, the ratings generally show declining achievement,” said
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles. “The good news, though, is that this school year we are
seeing encouraging signs of progress. Preliminary data from our mid-year exams this year
indicate that achievement is improving. Additionally, the data from mid-year exams indicate that
NES and NES-aligned campuses experienced higher academic growth than our non-NES
campuses. This is especially important because, on the whole, our NES and NES-aligned
schools are further behind academically. HISD won’t turn things around overnight, but we are on
the right path.”

The NES is the largest and most significant effort to transform K-12 education in the United
States. While other districts have tried to improve schools by taking incremental steps—such as
adopting a new curriculum or expanding certain programs—the NES involves whole-scale,
systemic reform. It is designed to dramatically improve academic performance, close
achievement gaps, and ensure Houston’s students graduate prepared for the modern workplace
and world. An ambitious effort for the city—and, indeed, the nation—the NES has the potential
to remedy decades of ineffective K-12 policies and prove what is possible for America’s
students.

Innovative NES Staffing Model

Given NES schools’ extensive needs, employees at these campuses earn higher salaries than
staff at other HISD schools. NES schools also differentiate compensation based on the subject
taught and rigorous teacher and leader evaluation systems.

HISD 2024-2025 Teacher Salaries

In addition to higher salaries, NES teachers have a range of other resources. These include a
centralized team that creates the daily lessons, which can be customized as necessary, so
teachers do not have to spend a lot of time outside the school day building lessons from
scratch. Teachers receive regular coaching from instructional experts and are supported by
teacher apprentices and learning coaches. Teacher apprentices, who are pursuing their teacher
certification, work alongside the teacher, learning the instructional model and effective teaching
practices; co-teaching; substituting as necessary; and participating in the same training as
teachers. Learning coaches, for their part, handle a variety of tasks outside the classroom, such
as making copies and completing paperwork.

In December 2023, HISD released overall District accountability ratings. In preparing the
campus ratings, the Assessment, Accountability, and Compliance Department worked for the
past several weeks to perform additional quality checks before scores were given to each
campus this morning. As a part of that process, the department needed to apply one final step
of the TEA methodology. That resulted in an update to the overall District-wide information that
HISD released last month.