Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles Defends His Reforms in the Senate, Citing a Math Gap Cut From 38 Points to 22
A day after a citizen panel faulted the state takeover, the superintendent took the district's case to a Texas Senate committee: a racial math gap down from 38 points in 2023 to 22, a $700 million fund balance, starting teacher pay at $70,000 - and a promise of single-digit gaps within two years.
Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles defended the district's reform policies during a Texas Senate committee hearing on academic achievement strategies held Tuesday, October 27. The discussion centered on methods to address academic achievement gaps and improve student performance in large urban districts, and district leadership attributes the narrowing gaps to systemic changes aimed at correcting decades of low expectations for minority and special needs students.
The district's headline number is the math gap. The racial math achievement gap has narrowed to 22 percentage points, down from 38 percentage points in 2023, and the district expects the achievement gap to reach single digits within the next two years. Miles emphasized that principals now spend 70 percent of their time coaching instruction within classrooms, and that the district relies on the New Education System and AI-backed curricula to drive the academic gains.
The fiscal picture Miles carried to Austin was equally pointed: Houston ISD currently maintains a $700 million fund balance, with starting teacher salaries set at $70,000 and a cap of $101,000. On the enrollment declines that have shadowed the district, officials note the losses are linked to broader birth rates and immigration trends.
The testimony lands in the middle of a live argument over the takeover itself. A citizen commission's report faulting state control of the district was the subject of this station's coverage on Tuesday; Miles' Senate appearance is the district's answer in the same week - the reforms are working, on the district's numbers, and the argument now is over whether the numbers or the critics have the trajectory right. The next achievement data will test both claims.
