HOUSTON – Houston Independent School District’s new state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, unveiled how he and his team plan to grade principal effectiveness in the upcoming school year.
Miles said he’s relying on four criteria: student achievement, quality of instruction, special education, and action plan.
“That is a very specific plan that outlines five or six specific actions that principals need to take, this year, that will be indicators of success tied to those actions and they will be evaluated on,” Miles said during an announcement to news outlets.
Miles has been leading several training courses with district principals.
“They’ve got this,” he said. “The last day and a half have been great. Talking with the principals, training them, showing them the vision. I think overall my impression is that the principals are ready for a change. They needed information, and once we gave them a lot of information, anxiety went down.”
Principals will be evaluated in the upcoming school year, then depending on how they do, they’ll get a pay raise ranging from $110,000 to $195,000.
Principals at underperforming schools will get more compensation.
“We want to compensate them for the level of difficulties that it will require,” Miles said. “So, we’re going to figure out how well our principals can lead a school building.”
The superintendent said the district would be able to afford it by re-evaluating central office and reducing vendors.
“We have a number of vendors, actually we have too many vendors,” he said. “Right now, we have vendors and others who are telling teachers how to teach and then telling principals, different group, telling principals how to coach and it’s not aligned.”
Miles and the board of managers will meet as a full body Thursday. In executive session, the board of managers will vote on Miles’ cabinet and his salary. On June 15, they will meet to go over the budget.