Houston ISD superintendent responds to teacher’s viral video

HOUSTON – When FOX 26 asked Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles about a teacher’s viral video concerning students, Miles’ response started with a question of his own: “Is that new information?”

Houston ISD superintendent responds to teacher video

Big picture view:

The response came during a press conference Thursday regarding the district’s new accountability ratings for its schools. The district says it has more than doubled the number of schools earning A or B accountability ratings since 2023.

According to a press release, Wheatley High School was among the schools with an A rating. They said in 2019, Wheatley received its seventh consecutive failing accountability rating, triggering a law that required the state to either close the campus or replace HISD’s Board of Trustees, setting in motion the legal process that ultimately resulted in the state intervention in 2023. 

What they’re saying:

Regarding Wheatley’s rating, FOX 26 reporter Jillian Hartmann asked the superintendent for his response to a teacher at the school who went viral online stating his students struggled to complete an assignment.

Miles says the teacher’s message is not “new information” and has been a concern for years.

“I don’t think that’s new information. The sentiment, I think, we all [shared] for four years, or three years, the sentiment that there are students who need support,” Miles says. “There were many more students who could not read at grade-level or do math at grade-level. That is why we’re here. This is serious.”

Miles goes on to say the situation described in the video is why the district is “pushing kids too hard” and that the students are rising to expectations.

“People say we’re moving too fast, people can’t catch up. People say the expectations are too hard, we have a sense of time, we’re pushing kids too hard,” Miles said. “Yes, we are raising expectations and, guess what? The kids have risen to the level of expectation, so that we don’t have as many situations as that.”

HISD teacher’s viral video

The backstory:

In a social media video posted Tuesday, Wheatley High School teacher Darius Williams shares his experience with his senior students.

Williams says the students were assigned two paragraphs to read and a sentence to write. According to him, however, the students struggled to complete the assignment.

“I gave them the scenario, we annotated together, I gave them the answers before we even had the problem, and they couldn’t do it,” Williams said. “I have seniors who simply cannot read, and seniors who cannot write.”

According to Wheatley High School’s online staff directory, Darius Williams is listed as an NES CTE teacher in a non-foundational program of study.

The Texas Education Agency says a “non-foundational” teacher teaches elective, specialized, or enrichment subjects instead of core academic courses.

MORE: Houston ISD teacher posts emotional video on students’ reading ability