{"id":1021110,"date":"2026-08-24T14:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1021110\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T14:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:17:18","slug":"inflating-school-ratings-aug-24-2026-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1021110\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflating school ratings (Aug. 24, 2026) \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-530383 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/HMCC-Featured-Image-Dark-Blue-2025-1000x563.jpg\" alt=\"A mint green skyline against a dark blue background with the words Houston Matters with Craig Cohen in white\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Houston Matters begins at 9 a.m. CT on 88.7FM. You can also <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/app1.kuhf.org\/player\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">listen online<\/a> or <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@HoustonPublicMedia\/streams\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">watch live on YouTube<\/a>. Join the discussion. Call or text 713-440-8870. Email <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/shows\/houston-matters\/2026\/08\/24\/559630\/inflating-school-ratings-aug-24-2026\/mailto:talk@houstonmatters.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talk@houstonmatters.org<\/a> or tag us <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HoustonMatters\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> @HoustonMatters<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Monday\u2019s show: More than 20 Houston-area apartment landlords are accused of using a shared pricing algorithm to push rents higher. We find out what a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/business\/real-estate\/article\/realpage-settlement-houston-landlords-22385503.php\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">settlement<\/a> means for affected renters.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Also this hour: As Houstonians, we waste a lot of time sitting in traffic. We lose hours doom scrolling on social media. We also lose precious time contending with spam calls and junk mail, which only seem to get worse as time goes by. Can we free ourselves from unsolicited calls, e-mails, and texts?<\/p>\n<p>Then, a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/projects\/2026\/houston-isd-college-prep-accountability-grades\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Houston Chronicle article<\/a> laid out how HISD and other districts may be gaming the system to artificially inflate their state accountability grades and why that particular gravy train may soon end. We discuss that and other developments in education with a roundtable of reporters.<\/p>\n<p>And Bleav in Astros podcast co-host <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/jeffbalke\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jeff Balke<\/a> catches us up on the Astros, and we also talk with him about another football preseason filled with injuries \u2014 including a bad one for the Texans offense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Audio from today\u2019s show will be available after 11 a.m. CT. We also offer a free podcast <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/podcasts\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/houston-matters-podcast\/id642557771?mt=2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">on iTunes<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/app.stitcher.com\/browse\/feed\/37496\/details\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stitcher<\/a> and other apps.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Matters begins at 9 a.m. CT on 88.7FM. You can also listen online or watch live on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":215937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[7951,407,16304,6263,4345,16305,74022,408596,24668,425,50,408597,3996,179460,62,408598,26570,358,3187],"class_list":["post-1021110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-astros","tag-education","tag-full-show","tag-hisd","tag-houston","tag-houston-matters","tag-jeff-balke","tag-junk-mail","tag-landlords","tag-local","tag-news","tag-political-spam","tag-shows","tag-spam","tag-sports","tag-star-test","tag-texans","tag-texas","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117150919864952243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}