{"id":141429,"date":"2025-08-13T04:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141429\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T04:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:09:13","slug":"parents-at-houston-school-slam-last-minute-hisd-curriculum-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141429\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents at Houston school slam last-minute HISD curriculum changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Houston Houston school parents slam last-minute changes<\/a> <\/p>\n

The first day of class ends in a bit of frustration for a group of parents at one Houston ISD school. Some abrupt changes were made to the curriculum. FOX 26 Reporter Sherman Desselle has more.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON<\/strong> – Parents at Durham Elementary School in north Houston say abrupt, last-minute curriculum, and staffing changes by Houston ISD have left them frustrated and concerned just as the new school year begins.<\/p>\n

Parents are concerned about quick HISD changes<\/strong> <\/p>\n

According to multiple parents, the school has spent the past year developing a phased dual-language master schedule aimed at gradually transitioning math instruction into Spanish. The plan, they said, included careful staffing and preparation to ensure a smooth implementation.<\/p>\n

However, just days before the first day of classes, Houston ISD officials reportedly made significant changes \u2014 reassigning staff and mandating the immediate rollout of Spanish-language math instruction as part of a broader district curriculum shift.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s unfair for our teachers, it\u2019s unfair for our students,” said parent Sarah Maller. “The chaos doesn\u2019t cause success.”<\/p>\n

Another parent, Davi Garza, said the district\u2019s timing is what\u2019s most troubling.<\/p>\n

“This is not aligning with supporting our teachers, this is not aligning with supporting our students, and this is not aligning with supporting test scores,” Garza said. “We are not resisting the change at all. We are OK if we need to implement changes. What we are not OK with is implementing these changes two days before school starts.”<\/p>\n

Confusion around ratings <\/p>\n

The changes come as Durham Elementary has also received conflicting information about its state accountability rating. Parents said they were previously told the school held a “B” rating, but a district administrator recently indicated in an email that the school was rated a “C.”<\/p>\n

“While last school year Durham had an accountability score of 81 (B), according to the most recent results, Durham will receive a 75 (C). I\u2019m sure we both agree that a six-point and full letter grade drop is significant and unacceptable,” the administrator stated. “As a result, non-NES (PUA) schools with significant declines have a reduced level of autonomy regarding the curriculum used and will implement the HISD curriculum.”<\/p>\n

At a recent press conference, HISD Superintendent Mike Miles suggested the school could be performing even lower under new accountability metrics, saying Durham is among several “special focus schools” identified after preliminary STAAR results.<\/p>\n

“Those special focus schools will have to use the HISD curriculum, which is provided for them,” Miles said. “While, yes, it may be since last week \u2014 because we provide it for them, it\u2019s online already. That includes PowerPoints, lesson objectives, demonstration of learning, quizzes, answer keys, and differentiated assignments.”<\/p>\n

Miles emphasized that all materials were accessible to staff and that the shift was based on recent performance data.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Parents said a school administrator has agreed to meet with them later this week to address their concerns.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Fox 26’s Sherman Desselle spoke with concerned parents from Durham Elementary and reached out to Houston Independent School District.<\/p>\n

Education<\/a>Houston ISD<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston school parents slam last-minute changes The first day of class ends in a bit of frustration for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[407,4345,6267,50,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-141429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-isd","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115019498557187074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141429","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=141429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}