While Houston ISD high school students saw year-over-year improvements in their standardized test scores during the district’s first year under state-appointed leadership – and in some cases outperformed other urban districts in Texas – their scores remained well below statewide marks.
The percentages of Texas students who met the grade-level standards in Algebra I, Biology, English I, English II and U.S. History were largely flat between spring 2023 and spring 2024, according to STAAR End-of-Course assessment results released Friday by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). A greater percentage of students across the state met the standards in English II – 60% this year compared to 56% last year – while the number fell from 71% to 69% in U.S. History.
The percentage of HISD students meeting grade level increased this year in four of the five subjects, with the 63% mark for U.S. History remaining steady compared to last year. But HISD also had smaller percentages of students meeting the standards in each of the other subjects – 38% in Algebra I compared to 45% statewide, 54% in Biology compared to 57% statewide, 44% in English I compared to 54% statewide and 49% in English II compared to 60% statewide.
Nonetheless, HISD’s scores were lauded by state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles, who made changes to how curriculum is created and taught at dozens of HISD schools this past year. Miles is expected to release HISD’s STAAR results for grades 3-8 late Tuesday afternoon, while the TEA plans to release statewide scores for those grades this Friday.
“The overwhelming majority of our kids had a good experience academically, and the overwhelming majority of our teachers and principals and students stepped up and engaged the process and came in with some of the highest scores the district has ever seen, despite (those) changes,” Miles said last week while addressing HISD’s high school STAAR scores.
RELATED: Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles to meet with city council this month
Students’ performance at individual schools, within districts and across the state is categorized by the TEA as not meeting grade level, approaching grade level, meeting grade level and mastering grade level. Scores approaching grade level and higher are considered passing by the state agency.
Miles was appointed to lead HISD by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who also replaced HISD’s nine elected trustees with a board of managers because Wheatley High School had a string of failing academic ratings from the state. Wheatley increased its percentages of students who met grade level, compared to last year, in each subject except U.S. History.
Districtwide, the percentages of HISD students meeting grade level in both English I and English II exceeded the district’s numbers from 2019, mirroring a trend statewide, in Texas’ other urban districts and also among other large districts in the Houston area. Scores in the other three subjects lagged behind pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in most cases.
RELATED: Houston ISD community members express skepticism about $4.4 billion bond proposal
HISD’s STAAR scores among high schoolers this year were comparable to those in Dallas ISD. The latter district had higher percentages of students meeting grade level in Algebra I and English II, HISD boasted higher percentages in Biology and English I, and both had 63% of students meeting grade level in U.S. History.
HISD’s scores also compared similarly with El Paso ISD as the latter had higher percentages of students meeting grade level in Algebra I and English I, whereas HISD had higher percentages in the other three subjects. HISD outperformed Fort Worth ISD and San Antonio ISD across the board, while Austin ISD performed better than HISD in each of the five subjects.
Among all those urban districts, only HISD and Dallas ISD saw their year-over-year percentages increase or remain steady in each of the five subjects.
Most of the other large districts in the Houston area – Conroe ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Humble ISD and Katy ISD – significantly outperformed HISD in terms of their percentages of students meeting grade level in the five subjects. Aldine ISD in northeast Houston, meanwhile, fell below HISD in each of those subjects.
