HISD Keeps Classroom Doors Open, Remains Mum on a 14-year-old’s Death and Builds the Teacher Force it Says it Wants

If half of the 2,600 teachers who left Houston ISD in June and July were rated in the bottom two proficiency categories by the district is this a sign that they were bad teachers or that they just couldn’t get with Superintendent Mike Miles’ programs?

Should parents breathe a sigh of relief or in some cases continue to question the policies of the new administration?

And as to why the more highly rated teachers, including those judged to have turned in “exemplary” performances, quit their jobs with HISD, it’s not known. As explained by Jessica Neyman, HISD’s Chief Human Resources Officer at Thursday night’s school board meeting, the Miles administration is continuing the previous practice of leaving it up to the departing employees to ask for an exit interview.

For his part, Miles pointed to his data showing 83 percent of the higher rated teachers staying with the district as evidence that HISD is building a more proficient teacher force. “The higher the instructional proficiency of the teachers, the higher the retention rate.”

The departures were higher than historic numbers, 2,696 compared to 2,000, but he added that 1,400 of those teachers had been told they were being brought in for “file review” in the spring meaning they knew their continued job prospects weren’t stellar.  “Most of those teachers decided to resign,” Miles said, before going through that process.

It was another sometimes raucous and always lengthy board meeting complete with one group protesting the upcoming $4.4 billion bond election and another calling for answers in the aftermath of the August death of 14-year-old Landon Payton at Marshall Middle School while in gym class. Landon’s father Alexis Payton, was joined by state Rep. Christina Morales and FIEL Executive  Director Cesar Espinosa among others who stood during the meeting while holding a picture of Landon.

Payton’s family has still not been told of his cause of death, only that he suffered “a medical emergency.” The AED equipment was reportedly not working in his location which has led to an HISD review of AEDs throughout the district and discovering 170 inoperable units that it has said will be repaired. The family still doesn’t know if a working defibrillator would have saved Landon. HISD has said that only medical officials can establish the cause of death.

Later in the public speaking section of the evening, parent Anna Luzutiaga asked  everyone to stand to remember the teenager in a moment of silence. While audience members rose, the board members and superintendent did not – which caused an immediate outcry.

Chanting Landon’s name, while continuing to stand, the audience could not be interrupted. One audience member cursed which sparked a reprimand from Board President Audrey Momanaee  who said children were watching the meeting from home.  When the chanting continued,  the board and Miles retreated to a back room right before 6 p.m. before returning at 6:07.

“This board supports the Payton family,”  Momanaee said upon their return. She then explained the need for order in school board meetings and repeated that the use of swear words could not be allowed.

An interesting note was struck when Miles discussed the district’s assessment of performance comparing non-certified teachers to certified ones. Data showed that a lower percentage of the non-certified – 42 percent — scored at the proficient and above level, while 66 percent of certified teachers were judged proficient or higher.

In the past, Miles has maintained that teachers should be judged on the job they too, rather than whether they are certified or not. At board meetings there have been continuous complaints from parents, students and educators about the district’s increasing use of non-certified teachers, contending that many of them are ill-equipped to handle a classroom.

Thursday, Miles acknowledged the important factors of experience and training in how effective teachers can be.

He touted an expansion of HISD’s own in-house certification program which allows the uncertified to work toward certification while teaching. He also referred to a Texas Tribune story which reported that districts all over the state are using more uncertified teachers, trying to fill their teacher ranks, calling it the new reality.

“This is a problem statewide and nationally,” Miles said.  For the forseeable future if we want to fill all of our positions, we will be hiring teachers who need a certification.”

According to the Texas Education Agency, 40 percent of new hires across the state in 2023-24 were uncertified. At charter schools it was 60 percent. At the same time, Miles reported that there were 8,000 applicants at the district’s job fairs for about 1,000 openings.

click to enlarge

An analysis of the HISD retention patterns

HISD chart