'It's just so stressful': HISD teachers' pay will be based on evaluations with new system

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- When Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles took over last year, he said one of his biggest goals was to change how teachers and principals in the district are evaluated and paid.

"I was heartbroken when I left. My classroom was heartbroken," Carly, a former teacher at HISD's Benbrook Elementary, said.

Carly resigned in December.

"By trying to participate under Miles' rules, I felt like I was doing more harm to the students," Carly said.

Like all 11,000 teachers in HISD, Carly was observed by school administrators much more closely than in the past year, which will likely increase.

HISD officials are working on a new system to tie teacher pay to their evaluations by 2025. There will be a curve, so the bottom percent of teachers will not be brought back.

"It's just so stressful. You could lose a job because a teacher comes in and the kids are having a bad day, and you can't even ask what's going on," a current HISD teacher said. "You just got to keep teaching and yet you're being evaluated on this. That's not right."

He asked Eyewitness News not to identify him because he feared being fired.

Hundreds of people protested the superintendent's new evaluation system for principals in March, building up to a dramatic board meeting that ended with Miles reversing his plan at 2 a.m.

The superintendent's first try at a new system for teachers was dropped after the district's teachers union filed a lawsuit.

"When you throw in having zero accountability with an elected board, our kids experience disruption hourly," Carly said.

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