Houston's comeback: Structure, direct instruction are paying off
- Joanne Jacobs
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
"Traditional education, discipline, and careful monitoring and data analysis" are improving student performance in Houston's New Education System (NES) schools, writes Neetu Arnold of the Manhattan Institute in City Journal.
When Mike Miles was appointed superintendent in 2023, only one in five students could read or do math at grade level, she writes. More than 120 of the district's 274 schools had D or F ratings. The state education agency took over the district, and put Miles in charge.
Houston schools have a long way to go, but reading and math scores are improving, especially for disadvantaged students, Arnold writes.
Under NES, the district's worst-performing schools now use the highly effective and highly structured Direct Instruction (DI) method, Arnold writes. Teachers guide student learning instead of asking them to "construct" their own learning.
Critics say it's authoritarian, but Miles disagrees. "Students cannot guide their own learning when they cannot read," he told her. They shouldn't "just do what they're interested in when they're way behind in math." They need teachers to teach.
Core classes last 90 minutes. After the first 40 to 45 minutes, students take a quiz to see how much they've learned. Those who've mastered the lesson work independently for the rest of the period, while the teacher gives extra help to students who need it.
Students who disrupt the class are sent to a separate room, where they observe the class remotely under adult supervision. "Kids hate that," Miles told her. Serious offenders are sent to alternative education programs.
Fighting and rules violations are down at NES schools, the district reports.
Some parents say NES schools are too intense with too much testing, she writes. They worry their children will burn out.
Some teachers dislike the rigidity of the curriculum.
But students seem to be learning more.
Miles' next move is a proposed pay-for-performance system for teachers. That's about as controversial as it gets.
Arnold discusses Houston's turnaround with Brian Arnold.
Houston's progress in an outlier. Across the country, reading and math scores for low achievers are "in free fall," writes Sarah Mervosh in the New York Times. Achievement gaps began growing years before the pandemic closed schools, and it's getting worse.