HOUSTON – An HISD teacher said he “literally broke down” in his classroom on the second day of the school year after, according to his account posted on social media, several senior students struggled to complete a short writing exercise.
Darius Williams, who is listed in the Wheatley High School’s staff directory as an NES CTE teacher in a non-foundational program of study, described the experience in an Instagram video.
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“I literally broke down in the middle of class,” Williams said.
Williams, who gets emotional in his post, said the students he was referring to were 17 and 18 years old and would soon be expected to graduate and potentially attend college.
“These kids are leaving high school and going to college, hopefully, after they finish,” he said.
He then described an exercise in which students were asked to fill in four words.
“These are 17 and 18 year old kids and they couldn’t fill in four words, four words,” Williams said.
Later in the video, Williams made a more pointed assessment of the students’ academic skills.
“I have seniors who simply cannot read and seniors who cannot write,” he said.
Williams said the students appeared capable of verbally defending their reasoning but struggled to transfer those skills to written material.
“I simply don’t know where the problem is. This is only day two,” Williams said.
Williams is identified in the video as an HISD educator and is wearing an HISD lanyard displaying “Wheatley.”
According to the district’s staff-directory, Williams is listed under the title “NES CTE (Non-Foundational Prog of Study).”
The CTE designation refers to HISD’s Career and Technical Education programs.
The district describes CTE as a collection of courses designed to prepare students for further education and careers in current or emerging professions. The district says its CTE programs prepare students for industry certifications, while some programs also offer dual-credit opportunities that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school.
*HISD describes a “program of study” gives students real-world experience, providing students with the knowledge and skills needed for a chosen career.