Hey, Houston Chronicle, What Are You Going to do with These Apples?
Facts on the ground contradict a drumbeat of headlines
Eyes and ears, pins and needles this morning to see how The Houston Chronicle and other Houston media will handle the story breaking at Houston Independent School District headquarters.
Of 24 schools given a choice to opt in or opt out of Superintendent Mike Miles “New Education System” reform program, 18 have said they want in.
This, after a months-long drumbeat of headlines from the Chronicle and others saying everybody in the school system hates Miles’ program of school reform and can’t wait to get out of it: “It felt like a prison;” “We didn’t choose this;” “Plummeting morale.”
This is the second time actual real people inside the actual real school system have voted overwhelmingly with their feet to get into the Miles system voluntarily. When he first unveiled the program last summer, Miles said it would be installed at a limited number of schools as a demonstration project. But almost twice that many schools asked and were admitted as volunteers.
After that happened, Houston media reported all kinds of unattributed conspiracy theories about school principals getting strong-armed behind the scenes, so this time around the Miles regime got out ahead of that game. Principals at all of the 24 schools invited to join NES were instructed to survey their faculty and parents and hold open public meetings before making a decision. After going through that process, a half dozen principals said thanks but no thanks.
But HISD is announcing today that three-fourths of the invited schools have said they want in. That’s stunning, both on the face of it and as a stark refutation of the story peddled so hard all this time by the Chronicle.
The Chronicle has been busy this week stirring up fights and student walk-outs at Madison High School. I’m really curious how they will pivot to this new story.
My headline would be, “Miles Gets Big Endorsement from Schools.” My underline would be, “Chronicle appears wrong about everything.”
Should I hold my breath? (Please consider my age.)
We just need to wait till test scores come out at the end of the year to get some relief.
I wonder how the Chronicle will spin that!
Headline: “Unprecedented increase in test scores comes at the cost of misery of students and teachers."
Jim you on bsky yet?