ABOVE: Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles observes a classroom on Aug. 11 at Sugar Grove Academy in Houston’s Sharpstown neighborhood. (Antranik Tavitian / Houston Landing)

Houston Independent School District is officially a “District of Innovation.” The HISD Board of Managers voted unanimously, 8-0, in favor of the new status at a meeting on Dec. 14. (One board member was absent, as was the district superintendent.) The move gives HISD the power to alter class sizes and disciplinary measures — and to hire uncertified teachers.

“HISD is a District of Innovation,” said Superintendent Mike Miles in a press release. “We are making the bold changes required to improve instruction and help students develop the competencies they will need to succeed in the future. Having the DOI designation is long overdue and will allow us to accelerate our work in important ways.” It will also allow his district to bypass or sidestep state laws, which nearly every school district in the state has done since the 2015 passage of HB 1842. That law, co-written by State Rep. Harold Dutton, paved the way for the HISD takeover in the first place.

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And the writing was on the wall months ago. At a community meeting back in April, one woman warned listeners: “I want everyone to know that HB 1842 also brought with it ‘District of Innovation,’ which gives the districts that participate the same freedoms as charter schools – freedoms to circumvent state laws that protect students, teachers and parents’ rights, including the right to a certified teacher,” she said. But after the recent board vote, that’s all changed.

District of Innovation

A District of Innovation, Miles said, is exempt from “certain statutory requirements.” To put it more bluntly: “A DOI allows more than 60 exemptions from state laws over school operations.” The current plan allows just seven exemptions. Some are student-centered: for example, HISD wants to allow high school juniors and seniors to spend more than two school days visiting colleges without having unexcused absences.

One exemption concerns a rule where students caught vaping are sent to a DAEP. A Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, or DAEP, is an alternative program for students temporarily removed from class for disciplinary reasons. Miles said some kids will be sent to in-school suspension; others will be suspended out-of-school. “There’s always going to be consequences,” he said at a press conference on Nov. 15.

At that same presser, District Advisory Committee member Celeste Barreto Milligan took the mic to share why she supports the policy change. “I think that the law is unjust,” she said. “You may know that in Texas, you can arrest and jail a child as young as 10 years old […] Immediately sending them to a DAEP situation opens the doors for them to get into the school-to-prison-pipeline,” she said. “I have two middle-school boys; I would hate for them to be held accountable at that level for such a mistake. I’m going to hold them accountable; I’m their mom. [But] I don’t want to see them enter the school-to-prison pipeline, especially as children of color.”

Another exemption pertains to minimum attendance for class credit or final grade. Under current rules, students must attend at least 90% of class days to get final grades. HISD wants flexibility in determining attendance requirements (i.e. ensuring that student attendance is at least 70% for each course). Elementary and middle school students must adhere to the current statute.

School Year

One of the exemptions allows HISD to start school earlier. Statute says a school district may not start before the fourth Monday in August. HISD’s DOI plan proposes that “the first day of school for the 2024-2025 academic year be no earlier than Aug. 7 and no later Aug. 14.” (The DOI plan cites research from a Harvard study of third graders, stating that extending the school year by more than 10 days improves student achievement more than grade retention or smaller class sizes.) The current HISD calendar has 172 days of instruction for students; the DOI calendar would have at least 180 instructional days.

“Houston ISD cannot improve academic proficiency for all students or close the pernicious achievement gaps that affect our students of color, students with special education needs, and students from economically disadvantaged communities without more high-quality instructional days,” the district plan said. It also argues that the move will help teachers pace their curriculum equally, provide students with an equitable amount of learning time and give them an extra week of instruction in advance of STAAR testing.

Teacher Hiring

Another DOI exemption allows HISD to hire uncertified teachers and counselors. Specifically, it allows HISD to hire high school teachers who do not have certification — without getting a waiver from the state or notifying parents. The board also voted in favor of hiring uncertified counselors. (The exemption does not apply to special education teachers, bilingual/ESL teachers, or pre-K teachers. Those requirements cannot be waived.)

“This will allow HISD to fill vacancies in positions that are hard to staff and will help give all students a constant classroom teacher,” the action plan says. Its authors claim that the teacher shortage spurred this change: “The District will continue to prioritize hiring credentialed teachers but will allow campuses to pursue innovative staffing methods to fill hard-to-staff positions to ensure all students have access to a high-quality teacher.”

But this move isn’t approved by everyone. Houston Federation of Teachers president Jackie Anderson blasted the DOI shift as “sinister” in a withering statement: “Evidence of teacher expertise and knowledge apparently doesn’t matter much to the board, since this plan allows HISD to hire uncertified teachers without a waiver and conceal that from families. The secrecy shows that Miles realizes parents would not approve of this.

The plan also allows class sizes to increase for elementary grades, when smaller class sizes are crucial for optimum learning; permits schools to dispense with a campus behavior coordinator, as if chronic misbehavior doesn’t impede instruction or safety; and allows for a custom teacher evaluation system with no teacher input,” Anderson said. “The District of Innovation plan is only innovative in that no other school district interested in investing in real solutions, not destroying public education, would even consider these provisions. This plan will last for five years, the entire length of time a child attends elementary school—the formative years when everything after depends on that foundation.”

It’s unclear what kind of foundation students will have when they return to school next year.

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