I never know what to make of what this guy says.
Houston ISD’s appointed Superintendent Mike Miles defended the results of his controversial principal screenings on Monday after nearly half of the district’s principals were notified that they had not yet met the requirements to guarantee their jobs next year.
The 117 principals who must undergo a second screening to remain at HISD include both longtime veterans and principals appointed by Miles’ administration just this year, representing Houston’s highest- and lowest-performing schools. Miles projected confidence Monday that the majority of those principals would keep their jobs, and noted that most of the district’s remaining school leaders had already passed the bar.
“There are 124 (principals) who are already above the proficiency bar, and the 117 (others) are the ones we told are making good progress, and you need to continue to make progress,” Miles said. “The overwhelming majority, between 80% and 90%, will be asked to return.”
[…]
Principals who were told that they must undergo a second proficiency screening received an email notifying them of their status and an invitation to a meeting with Miles earlier in March.
The Houston Chronicle obtained a copy of the email, along with a list of its 117 recipients, from a source with direct knowledge of the meeting. The Chronicle initially published the names of everyone listed as a recipient on the email, but removed the list after receiving a tip that a principal may have been included in the distribution erroneously.
Miles said Monday that the list of 117 principals who received his message was accurate, but indicated that there were discrepancies between the list distributed internally at HISD and that published by the Chronicle. He declined, however, to specify what those differences were.
Results of the proficiency screenings sparked outrage within school communities over spring break, as parents rushed to defend beloved principals, especially those at high-performing schools.
Leaders of a group of concerned parents known on social media as Supporters of HISD Magnets and Budget Accountability have argued that the screenings may violate state laws and local policies that say appraisals must be developed in consultation with local advisory committees, among other criteria. They said the proficiency screenings were not approved by the district’s appointed board of managers, and argued that Miles has shifted the goalposts because his broader principal evaluation, the “LEAD” appraisal system, has been updated multiple times since it was approved by the board in October.
“The fact that multiple principals from high-performing schools did not pass Miles’ Proficiency Screener shined a light on significant issues with both the ever-changing LEAD and the Proficiency Screener,” reads a legal memo drafted by the group. “Upon review, it appears that both are not only unfairly and inconsistently applied, which is against HISD policy, but they also violate Texas law.”
Miles said that critics of the appraisal system may not be educators or “steeped in evaluations,” and could have misconceptions about what it entails. Miles’ presentation to principals, along with the latest version of his LEAD appraisal system, were also leaked to the media.
“No harm, no foul if someone is trying to present the viewpoint that this doesn’t seem fair, I get that,” Miles said. “But I would say hold off because you don’t really know what the outcome is going to be.”
See here for the background. I dunno, if we had more information and some faith that this wasn’t mumbo-jumbo based on small sample sizes and also on a crappy rank-and-yank mindset, maybe there wouldn’t have been this reaction in the first place. Next year, when we see how much churn there’s been among the principals, then maybe we’ll know more. Until then, we read the tea leaves as best we can. The Press has more.
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