Durham Elementary parents raise alarm after last minute math curriculum change

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Parents at HISD's Durham Elementary said they are concerned for student and teacher success after a last minute curriculum change.

"It's hard to see how they are not being set up to fail," PTA President and Durham parent John Garza said.

Garza says on Friday evening teachers started letting parents know there was a big change coming to campus.

"There were some changes that were going to be made to their curriculum, mainly due to district-imposed scheduling changes," Garza said.

Garza said teachers were notified on Friday evening, they would have one day to switch their math curriculum to the district's new education system. He was baffled, and he's not the only parent concerned.

"I didn't understand why. Why the last-minute change, and why weren't parents notified before hand?" Durham parent Leianna Heinde-Krieg said.

Eyewitness News took those questions to HISD Superintendent Mike Miles. He wouldn't confirm any changes at Durham but did speculate a curriculum change could be based on the preliminary state accountability ratings released last week.

"A special focused school is a school that has a D rating and so those schools will get particular attention and focus and support," Miles said.

According to an email from the HISD North Division Chief to Garza, it says the campus went from a B to a C, that the drop was "significant and unacceptable" and that the school now had reduced autonomy. The official state scores will not be public until Friday.

ABC13 asked Miles how teachers were supposed to adjust with such a short timeline.

"Not only is the PowerPoint given to them, the lesson objective, the demonstration of learning, the quizzes, the answer keys, the differentiated assignment, and copies are made for them so all of that is going to be provided and I think that is probably what you are referring to," Miles said.

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