Welcome to the Report Card with Nat Malchus, the Education Policy podcast from the American Enterprise Institute.

In August 2023, I spoke with Mike Miles on this podcast, right after he took over

a superintendent of Houston Independent School District. From changing teacher pay to overhauling

curriculum, Miles' plans for Texas's largest school district were ambitious and controversial,

but would they work? Two years have passed

since then, so I invited Mike Miles back onto the podcast to hear what progress Houston has made

and whether Miles's reforms have gone according to plan. Mike Miles is the superintendent of

Houston Independent School District, and previously he was the founder and CEO of third future schools, the superintendent of Dallas Independent School District, and the superintendent of Harrison School District in Colorado Springs. Mike Miles, welcome back to the report card.

Yeah, happy to be here again. So, Mike, since we last had you on the report card,

about two years ago, that was right after you took the helm in Houston. A lot has happened.

Now you're entering your third year. How would you say things are going? Things are going great.

And in order to say great, it means that we are getting outcomes for kids.

In other words, students are reading at higher levels of proficiency than they ever have

in HISD, Houston Independent School District,

and doing math at higher levels,

we've gone from 121 D and F-rated campuses

to 18 D campuses.

We have no failing schools.

We had 56 failing schools, F schools, F-rated schools

two years ago, zero today. We went from 93 A and B-rated campuses to a hundred and

97 A and B-rated campuses in just two years.

And the thing, if I had any charts to show your listeners, I would show them just a chart of the map of Houston two years ago with the A through F-rated schools that the DNF are pink and red.

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