CASE Report: New Scores Show Narrowing Literacy Gaps

CASE is a collective of Houstonians committed to ensuring every student within Houston Independent School District (HISD) has the opportunity to receive a high-quality education.

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New Scores Show Narrowing Literacy Gaps

HISD’s youngest students made significant progress on early literacy assessments during this past academic year, according to new testing data.

This year, all HISD kindergarten and first grade students took the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) exams at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to measure literacy skills. This quick, research-based exam measures literacy progress throughout the school year.

Students showed double-digit improvements in nearly every metric, and the growth was greatest for historically disadvantaged students. The Houston Chronicle’s full story on the remarkable results is here.

Top Points:

Why it matters: The DIBELS assessment is taken several times throughout the school year, with the lowest performing students taking the test as frequently as once per week. This allows the test to more accurately measure trends in progress, rather than measuring with a single test on a single day of the school year.

The impressive results indicate that HISD’s new system is working and that the district is poised to continue its upward trajectory in student achievement.

What’s next: HISD will look to further invest in early literacy through the 800 additional pre-k seats that have been announced for next school year. The availability of these additional seats will allow even more students will get the high-quality instruction that they need.

Reporter calls out “false narrative” about HISD

HISD’s intervention has been a major focus for news outlets of all types since it began last June. Sometimes, that coverage has fallen short of reality. One example is the discussion of HISD’s Team Centers, which are differential learning spaces that are often housed inside libraries.

The news media misrepresented these Team Centers as “ discipline areas ” where students are punished for misbehaving. That characterization could not be further from the truth. In actuality, students look forward to earning time in Team Centers, as it is a reward for mastering lessons.

In Kappan’s recent interview with local journalists , Houston Press reporter Margaret Downing lamented the “false narrative” surrounding the Team Centers:

Kappan’s story is here.

Why it matters: The mischaracterization of HISD’s Team Centers contributed to fear and confusion that did not serve students. Rather than harm students, as the negative articles insinuated, Team Centers contributed to significant gains in academic achievement across all grades.

What they’re saying: Sam Gonzalez Kelly from Houston Chronicle had a similar comment: “I was always very careful in all my stories when I mentioned the Team Centers, I always included the caveat that they are not solely used for detention, or discipline. I don’t think I ever used the word detention center in a story. But I saw a lot of outlets that did, especially the cable stations.”

Looking ahead: HISD has improved tremendously in its first year of the intervention and is undoubtedly heading in the right direction. The district and students will look to continue the historic turnaround, regardless of the headlines.

HISD Staffing Up for Fall Classes

HISD is moving to quickly hire principals during the summer months in an effort to be fully staffed up for the start of the school year. Last year, as you may recall, the district succeeded in its effort to start the year with zero teacher vacancies. This year, HISD is looking to also ensure that all principals will be on board and ready to go on day 1 on the new school year.

Check out Houston Press and Houston Chronicle’s stories linked here.

Why it matters: By hiring now, HISD will have several weeks to get new principals up to speed so they can hit the ground running when school starts. Prior administrations sometimes struggled to fill staff vacancies by the start of the school year, but the current one has made teacher and principal staffing a priority.

HISD Job Fair: The district hosted 586 instructional leader candidates at the Delmar facility and 155 applicants left with a job offer for the 2024-2025 school year.

What they’re saying: A district official said that HISD hopes to hire principals in July so that there is time to consider parent feedback. Several in-person community meetings and online surveys were conducted to gather public feedback on what they would like to see in HISD’s principal hiring process.

Go deeper: HISD will also begin the use of “principal profiles” to better match principals with campuses. This new procedure will be informed by parent surveys and community feedback.

The bottom line: The early start on principal hiring is great news for HISD students as they look to build on last year’s success.

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