Houston ISD announced that the number of New Education Schools receiving D or F grades decreased by over 100 after a two-year period, as stated in the district’s release of the Texas Education Agency’s data on Thursday.preliminary A-F accountability grades for 2025.
State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles told the appointed Board of ManagersDuring a Thursday presentation, it was announced that for the first time, no schools within the Houston Independent School District (HISD) received a failing grade. The district also reported that in 2025, seven schools in the New Education System (NES) received a D rating, along with 11 schools outside of the NES, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
In 2023, 121 out of the district’s 274 schoolsgot a grade of “D” or “F”based on the yearly state evaluations, which mainly assess school performance and growth by means ofTexas standardized academic achievement tests.. Out of that group, 108 schools had previously been part of the Now-NES program, while 13 had not.
The TEA intends to make public formal assessmentsfor the school years spanning 2023-24 and 2024-25, on Fridays.
Miles stated that proficiency in reading, math, and science at the appropriate grade level significantly enhances a student’s academic performance in middle and high school. Furthermore, it increases their competitiveness for college admission or high-paying, skilled employment after graduation. He emphasized that these skills unlock opportunities for students, which is the key takeaway from the data.
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SCHOOL LIBRARIES: To adhere to state regulations, HISD plans to implement self-service library kiosks.
Following Miles’ presentation, approximately 80 parents and community members from HISD voiced their opinions, the majority of whom were critical of the reforms and changes he has enacted in the district since the state takeover.rising teacher turnover, Eliminating librarian positions in schools within the National Education System. and a stricter classroom environment.
“Test scores don’t show who I am or what I can become,” said Edita-Sage Bitner, a sixth grader at Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy. “Please help me explore a place where kids like me feel safe to take risks, be ourselves and grow up into citizens ready to solve the big problems of the future.”
Speaking on behalf of an HISD student, HISD parent Christine Hurley said “all the fun” has been taken away from NES schools and the only thing that students are learning is how to pass the STAAR. She said the system has pushed out experienced teachers and the ones who stayed were “constantly stressed out by visitors.”
“The school I went to in kindergarten and third grade is not the same school that I went to in fourth and fifth,” Hurley said. “My little sister and many of our friends and family left for other districts or non-NES schools. So, sure NES is working at increasing our STAAR scores, but at what cost to our school communities.”
UNION CONSULTATION: HISD seeks to cut minimum requirement to meet with employee unions
Additional A-, B-rated HISD campuses
Miles said 197 of the district’s schools earned an A or B rating in the unofficial 2025 ratings, which is up from 93 two years ago. The number of NES earning A and B ratings grew from 11 to 94, while the number of non-NES schools earning the same ratings grew from 82 to 103 in the same time period.
“What this really means is that more kids are reading at grade level, doing math at grade level. More kids are attending A and B campuses,” Miles said. “You know that we have (70,000) students more attending A and B schools this year than they were a few years ago, … and so the kids have done remarkably well.”
The TEA’s exit criteria for the state takeover of HISD states that the district must not have any campuses earning consecutive failing ratings. The district reported that four campuses earned consecutive D or F ratings in 2025, down from 30 last year.
HISD has not released a formal list of the rating each campus had earned, although it did previously share that Valley West Elementary had raised its rating from an F to an A. In 2024, the district reported the only three schools in the state that had jumped from an F to an A.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL: HISD says it began the 2025-26 school year with 2 teacher vacancies
Closing racial achievement gaps
Kristen Hole, HISD’s chief academic officer, also presented an update showing that the district had met all of its goals or goal progress measures, which include increasing the number of HISD third-graders earning meets grade level on the reading and math sections of the STAAR
According to the presentation, 44% of third-grade students met grade level on the reading STAAR and 46% met grade level on the math STAAR. The racial achievement gaps among white students compared to Black and Hispanic students declined within elementary and middle schools on the math and reading STAAR over two years, Miles said.
“Two years ago, we had a huge achievement gap in this district, and you can see the number in math for our white-Black achievement gap, it was (a) 41 percentage points difference,” Miles said. “Today, it’s only 29. Now that’s still too big. I get that, but it’s a huge improvement since years before.”
STATE TAKEOVER: In 10 years, North Forest ISD schools faced two state takeovers. Where do they stand now?
While third grade STAAR performance among nearly all demographics improved, district data shows that the percentage of third graders with disabilities on the reading STAAR declined by four points during the state takeover.
Angela Lemond Flowers, the board’s vice president, asked Hole about how the district plans to improve the performance of disabled students, noting that it was one of the areas where the district still needed to “make measured improvements.”
We’re “really thinking about how we can build in scaffolds and supports for these students … We’ve done a lot of work, even this year, to improve curriculum enhancements to support these students,” Hole said. “We also have a dedicated time in every single principal’s meeting plan this year specifically for how to support our students in special education.”
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