“High quality” is a mantra that state-appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles and his staff sing like the hoarse refrain of a Friday night fight song.
When Miles came to Houston, he said he’d employ his own high-quality instructional materials to bring about “whole-scale systemic reform.” For decades, HISD had been known for its Wild West culture of principal autonomy that led to a roulette of inequitable outcomes – everything from nationally ranked campuses to mediocrity to chronic failure.
More than two years into this state takeover, though, I have a hard time believing that high quality means a bunch of slideshows instead of books, AI worksheets pocked with errors and droves of first-year teachers – with one in four teachers uncertified…