Houston ISD 2024 STAAR results show students achieved one of best years of academic growth, superintendent says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles said the 2024 STAAR results show students achieved one of the best years of academic growth the district has ever seen.

On Tuesday, Miles held a news conference previewing how HISD students performed on this year’s assessments and called the students “super.”

“So how did we do it? The STAAR exams in grades three through eight are very similar to the end-of-course exams in high school. Our kids did very well. Our teachers did very well,” Miles said during of the conference. “They had one of the best years of academic growth the district has ever seen. NES (New Education System) schools had even higher gains than the district.”

Overall, Miles said NES schools improved more than non-NES schools and the district did better than the state’s numbers. The state’s numbers will be released Friday, but Miles has already been able to review them.

Additionally, Miles said students have also managed to close the achievement gap by several percentage points, but they still have a significant gap to close.

“The gap is still significant. We have a huge achievement gap in our district, but we’re closing it, which is a really good thing,” he said. “The district as a whole did well, but our minority students did even better to close the gap. These results far exceed expectations for first-year growth. I knew we would achieve results, even if I didn’t expect this level of growth.”

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It specifically showed results from Wainwright Elementary, an F-rated school that was converted to the NES model. In 2023, 17% of the school’s third graders “met or exceeded expectations” in reading. In 2024, this figure increased to 46%. In 2023, 11% of their fifth graders “met or exceeded expectations” in math on the STAAR tests. In 2024, this figure increased to 54%.

When asked how he thought the STAAR test results would be received by those who criticized the changes, Miles said he hoped the questions and comments around the NES would shift from “NES is going to fail” to “Why does the NES work? ” and “Why is there a difference?”

Miles added that in reading and math, NES schools saw the largest year-over-year increase of any urban district in Texas. He said we will be even more impressed with HISD’s results once we see the state’s results.

“Our kids and our teachers rose to the challenge. They rose to the challenge. There’s no doubt it’s been a tough year with all the changes,” Miles said.

An additional 45 schools will transition to the NES model for the 2024-25 school year, for a total of 130. Miles believes the test results support the decision to expand the program.

He believes there is even more room for improvement in test scores in the upcoming school year.

“We’ll start Aug. 12,” Miles said. “It’s not going to take three or four weeks to get used to the engagement strategies, the NES model, what does that mean, this or that. We won’t have that.”

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