HOUSTON – Former Texas Education Agency Commissioner Michael Williams is celebrating preliminary results Houston ISD’s superintendent shared with the public Wednesday.
“It tells a good story,” Williams said. “It tells a story about when you have strong instruction and when principals and your teachers and your students buy into it, you can have great results.”
Williams led the agency from 2012 to 2015. KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun spoke with him ahead of the academic school year to understand how the state takeover would look.
Mike Miles: Houston ISD high school students had some of the best academic growth in district’s history
Balogun follows up with him as he describes the year filled with protests but academic success and how long he believes the state appointed managers will be in place.
The question and answer have been edited for clarity. The full unedited interview can be found below.
RILWAN: Mr. Williams, so you saw the PowerPoint the superintendent shared with us yesterday about preliminary start testing results. What are your thoughts on it?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS: Well, first of all, it tells a good story. It tells a story about when you have strong instruction and when principals and your teachers and your students buy into it, you can have great results. I think it’s outstanding to see the kind of increases in proficiency that it’s been shown across the district.
I think it’s obviously extremely important to see the closing of the achievement gap between Black and Hispanic students and their white and upper income counterparts, and I think it’s extremely important to see particularly, those biology scores, where the biology scores are off the chart in terms of increases and progressions.
RILWAN: The district did well in a lot of areas, that one was 14%. In 2019, [the number] was I think 4%. But those numbers are incredible.
MICHAEL WILLIAMS: They really are, and it tells the story, quite frankly, that when you have curriculum that’s aligned to the teams, and when you have strong instruction and when you go back to your instructors, your teachers day in and day out and help them improve at their craft, you can get great results.
RILWAN: If this level of grading is maintained for the next school year, what does that say about the board of managers, for example?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS: I don’t expect these gains to be reversed. I expect the district will build upon these gains, and I think what it tells you is any conclusion anybody would come to from having look at these numbers is that there’s something very special going on in the district. Today, all that other stuff that you hear, that’s just noise. What parents really care about is when you drop in, when I drop my kid off at school or when I put my kid on the bus, are they going to learn when they get down in the classroom, when they sit in their seat? And that is happening.
RILWAN: You said it’s noise, that same protest happened earlier this school year. It’s happened throughout the school year. What are your thoughts on all of those that you’ve seen?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS: Well, there’s no doubt when there’s change, there’s going to be some kind of ruffled feathers and they’re going to be people who are upset. But at the end of the day, let’s think about what real parents are concerned about. Real parents aren’t, you know, 8-to-5 politicians, they’re parents, and they want to make sure that their kids are learning. And so, yeah, every once in a while, a very popular principal may be reassigned, or very popular teacher may be reassigned. But as the adage goes, the proof is in the pudding. And the proof here is that with strong instruction and a strong curriculum and principals and teachers who buy into it, you can get great results.
RILWAN: You mentioned principals and teachers. We’ve seen several principals let go this year. Is that to be expected?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS: I did expect that… I wasn’t thinking about how many would be reassigned or how many wouldn’t have their contracts renewed. But if you don’t buy into what Superintendent Miles wants to do, then there’s not a place for you in the district. I’m not saying that’s what happened with those principals. I don’t know them, and I don’t know the circ*mstances of them not being reassigned or them being let go. But I do know one thing that does happen in these circ*mstances: it’s that some people won’t buy into the to the new scheme. It happens in football teams and basketball teams. It happens with school districts as well.”
SEE OUR OTHER COVERAGE: ‘Resign or terminate’: Houston ISD parents claim Meyerland Middle School principal given ultimatum
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