HOUSTON – Is the New Education System model established by Houston Independent School District’s state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, working? That’s the question many people want to know.
KPRC 2 sat down in a one-on-one interview with Mike Miles on Monday where the superintendent said the district elementary and middle school students at the New Education System campuses did “significantly better than the non-NES.”
“The kids did well which also means the teachers did well. They stepped up. And when I say did well, I mean better than the national average,” Miles explained. “We need to celebrate the kids and we need to celebrate teachers but this is just one data set. Four and a half months of work, one data set, that does not make a trend. At a district level, I’m happy about the results but I’m also cautious that we have a long road ahead here.”
Last week, Miles said students took the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress Growth exam in reading, math, and science.
“It’s a company that has this national norm assessment. Over six million kids take this assessment. More and more districts are using NWEA because it can compare data across the country so that you get a real idea about what the typical student should learn,” Miles said.
According to the results, on average, students in all grade levels at HISD saw above-average growth, with significant increases coming from students at NES and NES-aligned campuses.
“That says to me that we put in the right supports and that the program, NES model, is helping underserved kids like it was intended to do,” Miles said.
According to the data released by the district, third-graders’ math scores increased from 183.8 at the beginning of the school year to 192.6 in the middle of the school year, and reading scores went from 181.8 to 189.2.
On average, elementary school students saw their percentages go from 45 to 48 in math and from 47 to 48 in reading.
In middle school, the seventh-grade students saw the most growth. In reading, the seventh grader’s test scores increased from 208.6 at the BOY to 212.1 at the MOY; putting their average at 45 in math and 46 in reading.
The data also showed that 59% of elementary school students and 56% of middle school students met the district’s expected growth in math, while 55% of elementary schoolers and 54% of middle schoolers met their reading targets.
Black and Hispanic elementary and middle school students districtwide saw a decrease in overall growth compared to white students in both reading and math. However, they saw a slight increase in math at the NES and NES-aligned campuses than white students, as well as the middle school reading exams.
Also, 58% of Black students and 63% of Hispanic students at NES schools met their growth targets on the elementary school math test, compared with 55% of white students.
For high school, the district compared students’ STAAR exams from December 2022 to their December 2023 STAAR exam, which showed a 12% increase in Algebra, a 29% increase in Biology, a 14% increase in English 1 and a 40% increase in U.S. History.
Although the district is seeing improvement, especially at its NES and NES-aligned campuses, Miles says this is one set of preliminary data and much more work has to be done.
“It’s just one set of data, so let’s not break out any mission accomplished signs. But, at the same time, we know we’re on the right path and we know that our kids deserve to celebrate this week,” Miles said.
The data provided is only preliminary, according to Miles’, who added that the data did not include the science exam results, which students took on Friday, Jan. 19. Miles said the district plans to publish the official test results in the upcoming weeks.
As far as the future of the district, the superintendent says things are moving in the right direction.
“We have other data that we are looking at, it’s called spot observations of teachers. We have, in the first two weeks of February, an independent review team going to the schools and looking at the quality of instruction and assessing that. So, we will have some data points, and we also have the demonstrations of learning continuing, we have unit exams,” Miles explained. “And the next big assessment is the STAAR assessment and the end-of-year exams.”
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