Houston ISD superintendent says he expects schools to fail when TEA ratings come out

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- During Thursday's HISD school board work session, TEA-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said the challenge to improve schools' ranking will be tougher than ever.

"We're going to have many D and F schools. 70, maybe closer to 80," Miles said.

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This comment is shocking because, according to the Texas Education Agency, HISD had only 17 failing schools for the 2021-22 school year.

ABC13 asked HISD why they expected so many schools to fail.

The district sent a statement to ABC13 which read in part:

"It's an estimate based on what we know about how TEA is likely to rate schools. We will have a more accurate assessment when their rating is released this year."

The ratings are based on various factors such as how students perform on state tests, graduation rates, and college, career, and military readiness. The updates are expected to make earning a high letter grade harder.

Miles said he feels confident he and his team can turn those ratings around.

"I've been in 23-24 schools since the beginning of the year. Thank you, board members, for coming the first and second week, but I can assure you in the last couple of weeks, things have been even better than what you saw," Miles said.

The Houston Federation of Teachers told ABC13 it predicted that so many schools will now be labeled as failing, which is concerning.

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"These kids have already gone through dramatic and traumatic change this year. So for you to say I'm going to add a little bit more to the parent's plates and kind of add one more little worry that maybe your school is going to close, let's think about that one," Corina Ortiz with the Houston Federation of Teachers said.

HISD currently has an overall B rating from the state. But if 80 out of the 273 total schools in the district fail, that overall B rating could also drop.

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