Mike Miles Brings Texas-Sized Reform to HISD; Can It Be Sustained?

By Carole Hornsby Haynes       June 12, 2026 

For the past three years, Texas Houston Independent School District (HISD) superintendent, Mike Miles, has endured widespread scathing criticism, including accusations of ongoing racism and unfairness. Well known progressive education researcher Diane Ravitch charges that “Mike Miles Is Ruining Some of Houston’s Best Schools.” With test scores “soaring after state takeover despite racism claims,” Miles has been vindicated. 

In 2022, Texas’ largest public school district, and the eighth largest in America, had more than 120 of its 274 schools with D and F ratings. After years of academic under performance, the Texas Education Agency appointed Mike Miles to lead HISD in 2023 as part of a state takeover that replaced the elected school board with an appointed board of managers. 

Since the takeover, the district has made dramatic improvement with the number of A and B rated schools going from 93 to 197 and all F-rated campuses eliminated. Over the past three years, students in elementary and middle schools have made major improvements in reading and math scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Students in high schools have made significant improvement in U.S. history, English, biology, and algebra as well. 

Miles says large-scale reforms are needed to transform urban education. “The reason why we as a profession haven’t been able to move the needle much is that we continue to do piecemeal incremental reform...In the profession, if you try to do one thing, the entire system pushes back...and then you get a watered-down program or intervention.” 

At HISD, Miles has implemented many of his ideas from Third Future Schools, a charter network specializing in turning around chronically struggling schools that he founded and led in Colorado. Instead of the latest trendy educational interventions, Miles has implemented the “New Education System” (NES) with major changes to systems, staffing, and compensation and, most importantly, to curriculum and classroom instruction. 

From day one, the dramatic changes have brought harsh criticism from educators, parents and even students. Why has there been such a firestorm? 

Older Americans can remember teacher centered classrooms where students learned good character traits,to respect authority, and Western values. They learned to read, write cursive, and calculate without politicization. They were taught unrevised American history and American patriotism. 

This was the highly successful education model of our ancestors. (See the differences between traditional and progressive education here) 

Progressive/Marxist education has wreaked total disruption to public education.Indoctrinated in Marxist teacher colleges, teachers promote the ideology in the classroom. The result? A massive dumbing down of American students who disdain authority figures and despise America and Western values. 

The classroom has flipped from fact-driven, teacher centered to one that is student centered with project based learning. Small-group work is an invitation to student misbehavior or lack of effort. This has been a failure for academic achievement. How can students direct their own learning if they cannot read? 

Language arts/reading instruction includes pornographic literature, printing instead of cursive writing, and the use of LGBT pronouns. Math focuses on processes rather than correct answers. Social studies are politicized with critical race theory, diversity, political correctness, and multi-culturalism. Instructional materials are computerized which has caused a drop in student reading comprehension. Many schools have dumped “gifted” programs for “equity” reasons. 

Until the cultural revolution of the sixties and seventies, teaching practices included teacher-led exercises, skill grouping, choral responses, and repetition. NES has flipped the classroom back to a traditional classroom that is teacher centered and with direct instruction (DI). 

With DI, the teacher uses a carefully designed and tested script, rather than a content outline or lesson plan for creating content. DI is the method that great trainers and coaches use to teach the fundamentals of sports. DI is the method used to learn to play musical instruments. Key skills are identified and taught. Mastery is developed through practice and early intervention to prevent bad habits. With direct instruction, students become engaged and excited. 

At HISD under NES, lessons are centrally prepared and distributed to schools. Lessons are not scripted but rather are prescriptive. Teachers can adapt and customize, but they are not allowed to change the lesson objectives or lower the targeted standards. The instruction time is tightly managed so that teachers do not get to drift off into other areas. 

Classes in core subjects are taught with a specified structure for 90 minutes. For 40-45 minutes, students are instructed and then given a 10-minute quiz to provide instant feedback to teachers about the students’ grasp of the lesson. Based on quiz results, students are separated into four categories: Learner (L), Securing/Secured (S), Accelerated (A), and Enriched (E). L and S students receive additional instruction while A and E studentsgo to the school library or another room known as a “team center.” For the next 35 minutes they work alone or in pairs on more advanced materials. 

Disorder and violence are handled with a no-nonsense approach. For low level infractions students are sent to a separate room where they attend a Zoom class with close adult attention. Because students hate being isolated, there has been a significant drop in discipline problems. For serious infractions, students are sent to alternative education programs. 

Much negative publicity about the NES model has filled the media. Many teachers resent having to follow a prescripted lesson. Yet it is the prescripted lesson that prevents teachers from peddling their Marxist activism during class. Some teachers and students complain about the fast pace. Yet the fast pace keeps students on track and reduces discipline problems. With the fast pace, teachers have no time to engage in spreading leftist ideology. With daily short quizzes, students are no longer passed without making progress. No surprise that test scores are up. 

Progressive education professors and theorists claim that DI is at odds with “best practices.” They demonize DI as teacher led “drill and kill” and its practice to build mastery as “rote learning.” Yet it is their progressive education that has destroyed public education. 

Without a state takeover, Miles would have been fired over so much public criticism and the large number of teacher resignations. Since Miles does not have to be concerned about job tenure, he has led HISD to remarkable progress. It has been so successful that his reforms are spreadingbeyond Houston to other schools as HISD top deputies lead other Texas districts under state takeover, struggling campuses adopt his instructional model, and districts partner with his charter network.

Mike Miles has brought much needed change and discipline to education. His broad background as a Westpoint cadet, commissioned officer, company commander with the elite Army Rangers, Soviet analyst in the State Department, diplomat to Poland, and special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Russia has brought a new perspective to solving the problems in public education. 

Big-city education reforms often get off to a roaring start. High profile education reformers sweep in and set up a new system to shake up the bureaucrcy from indifference and complacency. The taxpayers shell out more millions in false hope.  Among the best known: Michelle Rhee in D.C., Joel Klein in New York City, Tom Boasberg in Denver, and Cami Anderson in Newark. 

Even if the reform is successful, under subsequent administrations reforms either level off or disappear.  HISD won the Eli Broad Prize for Urban Education for educational improvement in 2002 and 2013; but in 2023 HISD was taken over by the state. 

The question is whether the progress at HISD -- and at other schools that are implementing Miles' reforms -- is sustainable.  When HISD is released by the state, will elected board members and the new superintendent continue the program?  Or will the district return to an indoctrination mill under pressure from the left?