HOUSTON — KHOU 11 News was the first television station to tour Houston Independent School District campuses alongside Superintendent Mike Miles during the second day of the academic year.
Miles highlighted successes and continued struggles over the implementation of his system reforms.
KHOU 11 agreed to some restrictions put in place for the story, which why you won't see students' faces. Some conversations between Miles and others in the district were off-limits
The first stop in the ride-along tour was at Mitchell Elementary, one of the new NES (New Education System) schools for this year.
During the visit, Miles met with school leaders, visited classes that were in session and followed up the classroom stops with comments and thoughts on teacher instruction.
Miles said he was impressed with the level at which classroom instruction was meeting his expectations of NES.
“To see this right away, the level of comfort that the kids had and the teachers had it, I didn't see that level of comfort generally until about November last year,” Miles said.
But the second stop, Thomas Middle School, showed more of the struggles and growing pains some schools in the district are having with implementing NES.
During that visit, Miles was more critical of school leadership and urged fixes to happen soon.
“We're not where we need to be,” Miles told KHOU 11 News. “And that's just a reminder that this not easy work, this is hard work.”
Overall, Miles said he is satisfied with classroom instruction at the start of the second year of the state takeover, but knows he needs school leaders to buy into his system.
“I have full confidence with what I've seen so far in the five schools that have been at, principals are going to do that, they're capable of doing that,” Miles said. “We're off to a good start, it's a lot further ahead than we were last year, but there’s a lot of work ahead.”
The Houston Education Association provided a statement to KHOU 11 News to offer a different perspective on the start of school so far.
Read the full statement below:
“HISD was not prepared for the first day of school. I have received reports of teachers and students in classrooms with temperatures as high as 85 degrees. In addition to the hot classrooms, members are reporting overcrowded elementary classrooms at Non-NES campus.”