CASE Report: A Deep Dive into NES Curriculum

CASE is a collective of Houstonians committed to ensuring every student within Houston Independent School District (HISD) has the opportunity to receive a high-quality education.

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Houston ISD revamps curriculum strategy

Of the myriad changes the TEA intervention brought to Houston ISD, changes to curriculum have been amongst the most important.

As part of its NES curriculum, HISD in the last year has introduced innovative strategies that encourage student engagement and comprehension while providing flexibility for teachers to decide how they want to deliver the instruction.

Houston Chronicle’s full story is here.

Go deeper: All NES classes follow a common rhythm:

Why it matters: These curriculum changes are designed to provide high-quality instruction in every class, every day. By standardizing some aspects of teaching, while encouraging individualization in other areas, HISD’s ensures all students at least learn grade-level material, and advanced students can be challenged with more rigorous assignments.

What they’re saying:"Just because the curriculum was built in a high-quality way at grade level does not mean that a teacher is able to deliver it in a way where students can grasp it and engage with it, which is why we put in so many engagement strategies," said Sandi Massey, Chief of Leadership and Professional Development. "You can be a first-year teacher just learning, and those engagement strategies will still buffer your inexperience ... and help students learn the material anyway."

Storms, SPED Prompt HISD Budget Amendment

HISD board members approved a budget amendment on Tuesday that brings the district’s forecasted deficit for 2024-25 to about $250 million. This represents an increase in spending of about $125 million more than the $125 million initially budgeted.

Most of the increased spending is tied to revenue sharing with the state, unexpectedly high building maintenance costs due to storms and more spending on classroom instruction, specifically in special education.

Houston Landing’s full story is here.

Why it matters: HISD can cover this large deficit because of its ample savings and increased efficiencies due to major changes in operations.

However, the district likely would need to find significant new revenues or make large-scale budget cuts — possibly including more staff layoffs — to balance future budgets.

Yes, but: The spending doesn’t spell immediate danger thanks to a high level of cash in HISD’s reserves. HISD forecasts it will maintain roughly the same end-of-year balance in its reserves — about $800 million — as it had initially budgeted, because district spending came in about $175 million under budget during the 2023-24 school year.

Go deeper: Large projected deficits have not always spelled trouble in HISD. Last year, the district predicted a $250 million deficit but ended up with a gap of only $80 million, according to a financial report released in late November. In several recent years, HISD leaders projected they would operate in the red, yet ultimately ended up in the black.

What’s next: Miles said his administration will propose a budget for next school year in early 2025 that includes a “much decreased” deficit.

In January, HISD will begin the process of publicly discussing plans for its 2025-26 budget. HISD typically approves its budgets in June.

HISD’s Top Schools See Surge in Applications

As part of HISD’s K-12 school choice process , families can apply for their child to attend up to 10 different programs at campuses outside of their zoned campus, including magnet schools or specialty programs.

Approximately 120 of the schools in the state’s largest school district offer a variety of specialty and magnet programming, such programs for Career and Technical Education, fine arts, visual arts, performing arts, and science, technology, engineering and math, according to the district’s website.

This year, HISD experienced a surge in these school choice applications, with HISD’s top-rated schools seeing a majority of the interest.

Houston Chronicle’s full story on the matter is here.

Why it matters: The rise in applications indicates that the community has great confidence in HISD’s top schools, such as HSPVA and T.H. Rogers. These schools are nationally-recognized and very selective, and have become even more competitive since the TEA intervention began.

Houston Chronicle recently reported on several other HISD schools that top the US News & World Report’s national rankings. You can check out that article here.

By the numbers: Approximately 19,300 HISD families submitted school choice applications this year. This number represents an increase of about 300 compared to the previous year, despite HISD losing about 6,600 students.

Go deeper: The top 20 most popular schools — including 19 magnet campuses and one HISD-managed charter school — accounted for more than half of all K-12 school choice applications.

What they’re saying: HISD attributed the surge in applications to better communication from the district.

“We believe these [communications] were an important contributing factor in increasing the number of applications overall,” HISD said. “It is important to us to see the continuous rise in school choice applications and acceptances because that means that more families are able to choose the right school for their student.”

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