Two years after being taken over by the state, zero Houston Independent School District schools have received an F-rating by the state.
The Texas Education Agency accountability ratings grade schools (A-F) according to a number of factors. A large number of HISD schools have historically failed receiving D and F ratings for year.
Students not only report failing grades and can’t read or do math at their grade level but high school graduation rates are also low.
The district has also been plagued for years by corruption and mismanagement of public funds. After HISD officials were convicted for bribery, extortion and kickbacks, the state moved to take over the district.
After a long legal battle, the state took over the district in 2023, ousted its former superintendent and board of trustees and appointed a new board of managers and new superintendent, Mike Miles.
Under Miles, HISD has transformed. According to new preliminary TEA data, no HISD school received an F grade and the number of schools that received A and B grades tripled.
In the past two years, “We did great. You did great teachers. You did great students,” Miles said in an “HISD Now” public announcement.
He also explained the difference between attending an A-rated school versus an F-rated school.
“When you’re attending an F-rated campus, that’s like having an anchor on you as you go through the school system. It’s a drag and it weighs you down. It’s hard to achieve and get the education you need when you have this anchor,” he said.
“When you attend an A school, it’s very much different. A-school students are lifted up, they’re rising like they have balloons on their arms,” he said. The difference “means a lot for our students.”
For the first time since the ratings began, no HISD student will be attending an F-rated school this fall, Miles said.
In the 2022-2023 school year, HISD had 56 D- and F- rated campuses and 93 A- and B-rated campuses. In the 2024-2025 school year, HISD had zero F-rated campuses and 197 A- and B- rated campuses.
Two years ago, only 35% of HISD students were attending A- and B- rated schools, now 75% are. Two years ago, 45% were attending D- and F- rated schools, now only 7% are attending D-rated schools, according to the data.
This is a “tremendous improvement,” Miles said. “For the first time since the accountability ratings [began], no HISD student will be attending an F-rated campus when the school year starts.”
“Please congratulate our students. Please congratulate our teachers. This is incredible news for them and their success,” he said.
He also pointed to demographics and zip codes to explain “how transformative the last two years have been.”
“In our profession, we have talked about how zip code is often destiny,” meaning often poor performing schools are located in lower income communities.
“In some parts of town, you can look at a map of where the failing schools are,” he said.
Pointing to a map of the 2022-2023 school year ratings, pink and red dots show failing schools in poorer neighborhoods, where students “were struggling and a lot of times that’s underserved kids challenged by poverty or language barriers.”
“In two years, we’ve changed that totally,” he said. “You cannot find a zip code where there aren’t some high performing schools and A and B schools. Every child, no matter where they are in Houston, no matter where they are on this map, has a high-performance school near them,” he said.
“That’s never been the case in Houston or any other large urban district,” Miles said. “This is what our students have been doing. The success for our kids is phenomenal in just two years.”
The transformation came after Miles implemented a series of changes, including firing hundreds of teachers and implementing a performance-based compensation plan.
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The district still faces challenges with ongoing investigations. This year, an investigation was launched int HISD staff allegedly electioneering and secretly transitioning children, The Center Square reported.
Last year, a $1 million cheating scheme was uncovered involving 400 unqualified applicants receiving fraudulent teaching credentials and a Houston third-grade teacher was arrested in a major gang, weapons, narcotics bust.
“We have a long way to go,” Miles added. “We still have students who are behind. We still have an achievement gap we have to close. The work continues for the 2025-2026 school year.”
