With the approval, HISD joins roughly 80% of Texas public school districts in becoming a DOI, including Austin, Dallas and Fort Bend ISDs.
“We are making the bold changes required to improve instruction and help students develop the competencies they will need to succeed in the future,” HISD Superintendent Mike Miles said in a statement. “Having the DOI designation is long overdue and will allow us to accelerate our work in important ways.”
Since that time, the district has moved to implement several changes, including adopting an academic calendar in February that places the first day of school two weeks earlier than normally allowed under state regulations.
Meanwhile, leaders with the Houston Federation of Teachers and some community members have expressed concerns about elements of the plan that involve developing a local teacher appraisal system and hiring uncertified teachers without waivers.
Two-minute impact
HISD’s District of Innovation plan seeks flexibility in seven key areas to bypass requirements in the Texas Education Code, including the flexibility to create a local teacher appraisal system, to start the school day earlier and to hire uncertified teachers without a waiver from the Texas Education Agency.
In 2021, when the district was still under local control, an advisory committee shot down a proposal to become a DOI.
All exemptions included in the new 2023 plan are effective for five years from the date of adoption, according to the TEA. If the district receives unacceptable academic or financial performance ratings for two consecutive years, the TEA commissioner may terminate the innovation plan or require the district to amend its plan.
Details are to be determined on what the new teacher appraisal system will be based on, and officials said it will leverage elements of the current system and community input. After a parent and staff input period in January, district officials released a proposed academic calendar Jan. 31 for the 2024-25 school year, which was adopted by board managers at a Feb. 8 meeting.
HISD officials did not respond to requests for comment for this story related to the need to hire uncertified teachers and the process of developing a teacher appraisal system.
Digging in
HISD currently evaluates teachers under the state-approved Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, which uses four rubrics:
- Planning, including data assessments
- Instruction, including achieving expectations
- Learning environment, including managing student behavior
- Professional practices, including school community involvement
Under the district's previous academic calendar:
- School started no earlier than the fourth Monday in August
- HISD operated on a 172-day calendar
- School will start on Aug. 12 and end on June 4
- HISD will operate on a 180-day calendar
- Obtain a bachelor’s degree
- Complete an educator preparation program
- Pass a certification exam
- Submit a state application
- Complete fingerprinting
- Uncertified teachers will only be hired in high schools
- Any uncertified teacher hired would be required to be certified within two years
- More district- and division-based staff development events
- Flexibility on attendance requirements for class credit for eligible high school students
- Can opt out of sending students to disciplinary program for possession or sale of e-cigarettes, marijuana
- Expanding number of excused absences for students visiting higher education institutions
There are 976 DOIs in Texas. Other DOIs have sought similar flexibility within the Texas Education Code that HISD has also sought.Another perspective
Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, is among those who are critical of HISD’s plans to hire uncertified teachers and develop a local teacher appraisal system.
The HFT sued Miles for his previous attempt to create his own appraisal system, arguing he did not ask for teacher and staff member opinions as legally required. Anderson said she is worried the new plan in the DOI will resemble the one the federation helped halt.
“[Miles] has shown us he’s the kind of leader where he wants things his way, or it’s the highway,” Anderson said.
Anderson also pushed back on the nature of the teacher shortage, arguing that it has been exacerbated by the state takeover and lackluster investments in public education at the state level.
"We understand the teacher shortage probably better than anyone else," Anderson said. "We are in the trenches. We see what happens when teachers leave. The teacher shortage exists ... not because you don’t have enough certified teachers. It’s because you don’t have enough highly-educated individuals who want to be disrespected and underpaid."
HISD had about 800 uncertified teachers on staff as of November 2023, according to reporting by ABC 13. The district has just under 11,000 teachers total.
Anderson said she did not have a problem with the district hiring teachers that are alternatively certified, adding that she was alternatively certified herself, but expressed concerns about the amount of power the plan gives to Miles to hire teachers without TEA waivers, and the lack of means by which parents and groups like the HFT can hold the district accountable to follow the guidelines it has laid out for itself.
"When you come in and you remove the democratically elected board, not only are you silencing my voice as an educator in the classroom, you have given me no outlet to voice my concerns," she said.
What's next
Moving forward, various elements of the DOI plan will be implemented along different timelines. The new academic calendar was adopted Feb. 8, a meeting during which board managers also voted to update district policies to allow students more opportunities to visit higher education institutions and professional workplaces.
Timelines and details of other elements have not been specified, though district officials have said a new teacher appraisal system would not go into effect until the 2025-26 school year at the earliest.
