CASE Report: “Dramatic Improvement in Scores” at HISD

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“Dramatic Improvement in Scores”

Another day, another confirmation that Mike Miles’ NES system is working.

Houston ISD's elementary and middle schoolers improved in most categories of the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress exams taken at the beginning of the year compared to 2023, according to an upcoming board meeting agenda.

Check out the full Houston Chronicle story here.

Why it matters: Taken from August to early October, the tests are the first direct year-over-year comparison of standardized testing scores since Superintendent Mike Miles was appointed by the Texas Education Agency to head the district in June 2023.

This new data dovetails with all the other test score data that we’ve seen, that shows that HISD is trending in the right direction, and is getting there at an accelerated pace.

We have seen better STAAR scores , better NWEA-MAP scores , and better A-F ratings under Superintendent Miles. This recent release of new year-over-year NWEA-MAP data further confirms that NES is working well.

By the numbers: The percentage of third-grade students projected to meet grade level rose from 31% to 41% when using 2023 and 2024 BOY MAP scores, with Black and Hispanic students seeing the biggest improvement. That percentage also grew by 10 points among third graders in math from 2023 to 2024, rising from 24 to 34 percent of students taking BOY tests.

What they’re saying: According to an HISD presentation, "Overall, NES schools performed significantly higher in [beginning of year, longitudinal] scores compared to last year and narrowed the gap significantly with regard to starting achievement percentile.”

Go deeper: The full NWEA MAP results were presented at last night’s board meeting, which you can watch here.

Buyer’s Remorse for Anti-Bond Crowd?

The Chron.com reporters often skulk around the dark corners of a raucous, private Facebook group called “ Supporters of HISD Magnets and Budget Accountability. ” It’s where they seem to source many of their HISD stories - you’ll often see Chron.com reporters soliciting opinions, commenting on posts, and asking for stories. Here are four recent stories where Chron.com reporters wrote whole articles based entirely on Facebook comments from this group: story one , story two , story three , story four.

Regardless of the incomplete and often inaccurate information put forward by the group, it appears that right now there is actually a story worth writing about.

It appears that the anti-bond crowd is now experiencing buyer’s remorse. Several parents who voted against children’s and teacher’s interests are now wondering if they miscalculated.

Elsa states, “I feel like we just handicapped our kids learning because of adult problems...I feel we put ourselves at a disadvantage long term.”

Valeria responded to Elsa with similar thoughts: “Voting down the bond has only served to sabotage our own schools.”

Here, Kira laments the fact that “the rhetoric won and our kids suffered.” Agreed. “HVAC is down” will now be an evergreen comment in this group.

Cindy acknowledges here that “[m]any schools will now wait much longer for improvements that have been needed before Miles”. In fact, since the bond was rejected, students will be forced to spend more time in uncomfortable, unsafe classrooms full of environmental hazards - all because the teacher unions are afraid of merit pay.

Why it matters: This Facebook group is the main location where anti-HISD, union-aligned agitators gather to plan protests at charity events , cyberbully HISD supporters, and twist data to downplay students’ academic gains under Miles.

The bottom line: There is a group of parents intent on making sure Mike Miles’ life is difficult - regardless of student academic performance (which has been consistently stellar under Miles.) They ignore student needs and revel in HISD’s shortcomings.

Houston’s Neediest Communities Supported the Bond

Now that the dust around the HISD bond election has settled, many are looking back to see how this result was arrived at.

Both the Houston Chronicle and Houston Landing recently published articles showing how each neighborhood voted regarding the HISD bond, and the results are sad, but interesting.

The for/against heat maps show that the HISD bond opposition follows the “ Houston Arrow ”, a phenomenon that illustrates inequity in Houston.

The Houston Arrow is a shape that forms over the map of Houston when examining data on poverty, crime, homelessness, and several other socioeconomic data points. An arrow pointing to the right appears - those living within the arrow are typically wealthier and healthier, whereas those outside the arrow are in poor neighborhoods with far worse outcomes.

According to the maps, those inside the arrow were overwhelmingly against the bond, whereas those outside the arrow supported the bond. In other words, the wealthy neighborhoods, with fewer needs, more choices, and highest political capital opposed the bond, while poorer neighborhoods with the highest needs, fewest choices, and least political capital supported the bond.

Here are the full articles:

Landing: https://houstonlanding.org/see-how-your-neighborhood-voted-in-the-failed-houston-isd-bond-election/

Chronicle: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/neighborhood-voted-hisd-bond-19893716.php

Let’s look at the maps:

Analysis: You can see here that neighborhoods supporting the bond were clustered in south central and southwest Houston. There is also a cluster on the east side, just outside of downtown.

The highest concentration of supporters were in North Houston, the East End, and South/Southwest Houston. All these neighborhoods have significant African American, Hispanic, and Jewish populations, and a substantial number of households report incomes below $50,000 annually.

Why it Matters: Clearly, these marginalized neighborhoods wanted the bond to pass, but were overwhelmed by better-resourced opposition whose needs were not as urgent.

The Houstonians outside of the prosperous Houston Arrow once again got the short end of the stick and will be forced to endure HISD’s crumbling facilities for months, possibly years more.

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