Chronically struggling HISD elementary school 'moving in right direction' as TEA takeover nears

When Khalilah Campbell-Rhone walks into Highland Heights Elementary School, she typically finds a calm, focused and inviting campus. Colorful décor and positive slogans hang in classrooms, and murals with college mascots paint the hallways. Little hands shoot into the air when teachers ask questions. It's a drastic change compared to last year at the chronically struggling campus, said Campbell-Rhone, assistant superintendent of transformation at Houston ISD. This school year, the district has overhauled Highland Heights and two other campuses through an initiative called RISE Strong, which aims to turn around schools with a track record of D and F ratings from the state. FAILING SCHOOLS: These Houston ISD campuses have the highest failure rates, according to the TEA. Here's why. “The principal is so heavily involved in the instruction this year, whereas last year she was heavily involved in putting out fires. She was running around, kids were everywhere,” Campbell-Rhone said. “Now, you walk in, kids are in class, everyone is accounted for, teachers are showing up to work.” As these efforts show early progress, according to the district, the Texas Education Agency remains poised to soon replace HISD’s superintendent and board of trustees in part to address the very same issue: chronic low academic achievement. In 2019, Phillis Wheatley High School triggered a state intervention mandated by law when it failed to meet Texas academic standards for the seventh consecutive year, according to the TEA. But the Fifth Ward high school, which has since shown academic progress, is far from the only struggling school in HISD. Highland Heights, a 469-student campus tucked in a neighborhood near Tidwell Road and North Shepherd Drive, has not achieved a passing grade in a decade, according to state data, which also shows that Patrick Henry Middle School and Kashmere and North Forest high schools have earned failing grades for many years. The top five chronically failing schools are clustered in HISD District II, an area represented by Trustee Kathy Blueford-Daniels that encompasses portions of north and northeast Houston, including Kashmere Gardens, Fifth Ward, Acres Homes and Independence Heights. Failure rates That comes as no surprise to Blueford-Daniels, who said she has been raising concerns about neglected schools in her district since she assumed the role in January 2020. The trustee said many families pull their kids from poorly rated neighborhood schools in her district to send them to campuses across town with a big band program or nice athletic facilities, for example. Each student who leaves takes with them critical funding for neighborhood schools that need it, she said. “We’re losing our best and brightest,” Blueford-Daniels said. It’s unclear why schools like Highland Heights have languished for so long with chronic low achievement, said Campbell-Rhone, who first became involved in the campus this school year but has previously led several turnaround campuses in her decadeslong career with HISD. In general, she said, schools can suffer from low expectations, ineffective teachers and watered-down academic materials. “I understand walking into a campus and wondering: How in all of this world could someone allow this to happen?” she said. “My assumption is that leaders did the best that they knew how. So what I’m really excited about is, now, we have a rubric. We have a plan.” YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED: What to know about the Texas school rating system The district has implemented sweeping changes at the three RISE Strong campuses — Highland Heights, Henry Middle and Wheatley — using a signature model called Accelerating Campus Excellence, or ACE, under which struggling schools in Dallas ISD several years ago made major academic gains. The initiative marks the latest in a series of reform efforts by the district over the years. In 2017, HISD launched a program called Achieve 180 that targeted dozens of underperforming campuses, including Highland Heights, with additional support. The program showed mixed results, however, with campuses making some academic gains but struggling to improve attendance or fill classrooms with more highly rated teachers, despite incentives. Achieve 180 was phased out last year in favor of narrower intervention efforts. The new ACE model involves similar pillars: strategic staffing, instructional excellence, an extended school day, social and emotional learning, and parent involvement, according to HISD, though the district says this program goes "one step further" by transforming the "entire school experience." HISD is now offering up to $10,000 stipends to attract top teachers to RISE Strong campuses. At Highland Heights, the district rehired the same principal, Bettina McKinney, but last summer replaced roughly 90 percent of the teachers and administrators through a rigorous selection process, Campbell-Rhone said. "You have to have a building full of good teachers," she said. "You can’t have seven good teachers out of 20. You have to have 20 good teachers out of 20." Kids now begin the day with a few minutes spent learning about how to deal with feelings and how to treat others well – kicking off the morning “on the right foot and with the right intentions,” said Campbell-Rhone. After school, students eat another meal and participate in activities like gardening or karate for several hours before getting free transportation home, she said. The school serves mostly Hispanic and Black students, according to state data, and all but a handful of them are economically disadvantaged. More than a third are emergent bilingual students and roughly 12 percent receive special education services. Only 28 percent of students were reading on grade level and 25 percent were able to do grade-level math in 2021-2022, according to state exam results. Many students from low-income families are behind when they start kindergarten, Campbell-Rhone said, and the pandemic has only exacerbated educational gaps for students at all grade levels. HISD has focused on hiring strong teachers for the youngest students and placing tutors at each grade level, she said. “Our goal is to really get those students to a point where we’re not always moving backwards, where we’re not always trying to fill a gap,” she said. The changes made this school year have resulted in happier students and early progress that shows Highland Heights is “moving in the right direction,” said Campbell-Rhone, calling it the "poster child" for the ACE model. “If you want to know what a school should look like once it’s reconstituted, that is the campus to go to," she said. Still, it remains unclear how the state takeover might impact these turnaround efforts, Campbell-Rhone said. TEXAS RANKINGS: As HISD faces state takeover, database shows schools in Texas that received failing rankings “We have some really strong systems already in place and because they are TEA-supported, I don’t think there’s anything differently that we can do, especially for our RISE Strong campuses,” she said. “I think that if we stay strong in what we’re doing, we’re going to see success at Highland Heights.” Blueford-Daniels said she hopes state intervention in HISD will bring more resources to the district. At the same time, she said, the takeover hinders her and other recently elected trustees from finishing their work in the district. Her first years on the board were marked by the pandemic, Blueford-Daniels said. “We really only had the opportunity to make a difference in 2022. With TEA coming in now, we only had one good year, but we were on the upward trajectory — so we couldn’t show how much further up or how much better we could do,” she said. The TEA said in a statement that the board of managers and superintendent will work "to ensure that Houston ISD educators and staff have the necessary tools and resources at their disposal to facilitate student success in the classroom and beyond." "While the specifics will be decided by the board and superintendent, changes in support to campuses will be tiered, so that more support is provided to campuses with greater need, while high levels of autonomy are sustained at high performing campuses," the TEA said. PANDEMIC LEARNING: Students' test scores post-pandemic are 'appalling and unacceptable' In a prior interview with the Chronicle editorial board, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath made a reference to Highland Heights, noting in his remarks that all elementary schools need rigorous instruction, strong expectations and enriching experiences for students. "You can't have a situation where kids are going half a decade, or a decade, not learn how to read, write and do math at high levels," he said. Meanwhile, as the district works to turn around certain schools and state intervention nears, some families zoned to chronically failing schools have long sought out alternatives beyond their neighborhood. TEA ratings Sharona Beasley sends her four children to Osborne Elementary, a RISE campus located a few miles north of Highland Heights in Acres Homes. The school has improved in the last year with a new principal who engages students and parents with more activities, Beasley said. But the mother has struggled to get proper support for her daughter with intellectual disabilities. If nothing changes, Beasley said, she may consider sending her kids to charter school for middle and high school. “I just need some type of support, and I just feel like I’m not getting that from HISD,” she said. “So, if TEA comes in and changes that, that’s a win.” MORATH'S TAKE: Read the transcript from TEA Commissioner Mike Morath's interview with Editorial Board Nakita Givens, meanwhile, opted against sending her gifted daughter to Key Middle School in Trinity/Houston Gardens, which in 2018-2019 earned an F from the state. Instead, she enrolled her daughter at Lanier Middle School in Montrose through the HISD school choice program. The girl’s commute sometimes involved a two-hour bus ride, but her mother thought it was worth it to give her daughter a quality education and a shot at success. “If you have C, D, F rated schools and you have these gifted kids, they are not going to be challenged because the majority of the class time is going to be spent trying to catch other students up,” she said. But the girl came home from her new school distraught after getting bullied. Givens eventually moved her family to Aldine and enrolled her child in a new school district altogether. “It’s too much for any child to bear just to go to school,” she said. “There should be equality across the board – it shouldn’t matter what area you are in.” Staff writer Rebecca Carballo and graphics reporter Ana Goodwin contributed to this report. anna.bauman@chron.com

Chronically struggling HISD elementary school 'moving in right direction' as TEA takeover nears

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