The proposed exemptions would allow HISD to develop a custom teacher evaluation system, hire uncertified teachers and exceed the statewide cap on class sizes without obtaining waivers. It also would no longer have to follow a state law requiring the district to send students to a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program if they possess or sell e-cigarettes or marijuana.

Nearly every eligible school district in Texas is a DOI, and HISD and Cypress-Fairbanks are the only two districts in the Houston area that have not obtained the designation. Both are currently pursuing it. Most districts use the status to exempt themselves from laws regulating the school calendar start date and mandating all teachers to be certified, although many obtain additional exemptions.

DISTRICT OF INNOVATION: HISD seeks DOI status. What does that mean?

HISD’s DOI plan, if adopted, would exempt the district from having to follow a state law requiring the school year to start on or after the fourth Monday in August. According to the plan, the change would allow the district to balance the number of days in each semester and provide an extra week of instruction before the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.

“Houston ISD cannot improve academic proficiency for all students or close the pernicious achievement gaps that plague our students of color, students with special education needs, and students from economically disadvantaged communities without more high-quality instructional days for students,” the plan states. 

HISD currently has 172 instructional days in the school year, including 75 in the first semester and 97 in the second semester. If the plan is adopted, it says that HISD would not start the school year earlier than the first Monday in August or have more than 185 instructional days per year.

The district would also create a “competitive compensation package” that reflects the additional time and responsibilities of an expanded academic year, per the plan.

HISD SUPERINTENDENT: Mike Miles says students need more days in class, requiring DOI designation

Class size, teacher certification law exemptions

Texas school districts can obtain yearly waivers to laws regulating teacher certifications, maximum class sizes and other issues, but the DOI designation means districts can exempt themselves from these laws for a period of up to five years without filing yearly waivers. There is no waiver option to start the school year earlier.

HISD’s DOI plan would allow the district to be exempt from a state law requiring Texas school districts to have maximum class sizes of 22 students in a prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, second, third and fourth grade classroom. The DOI plan calls that number an “arbitrary class size restriction that is not supported by current research.”

The district has previously submitted more than 1,000 class size waivers during both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school year. The plan says the process of submitting waivers for maximum class sizes “is overly cumbersome in a district the size of Houston ISD and does nothing to promote student achievement.”

Kindergarten and first-grade classrooms could have up to 25 students and second- through fourth-grade classrooms could have a maximum of 28 students under the proposal. HISD would also place educators evaluated as highly effective in larger class sizes “to ensure the maximum number of students have access to an excellent teacher,” according to the plan.

The plan says the district is also seeking to hire uncertified teachers without obtaining a waiver from the Texas Education Agency due to a nationwide teacher shortage. Citing research, the plan claims that certification requirements have no effect on student performance or outcomes and are “only weakly predictive of teacher performance.”

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In tandem with that request, the district would also no longer have to follow a state law requiring the district to notify parents that an uncertified educator is teaching their student. The plan says that notification would be an “assessment to otherwise competent, high-performing teachers who may have not yet received their certification.”

HISD’s board of managers voted in August to approve a certification waiver before the 2023-24 school year began so the district could hire dozens of uncertified teachers to reduce teacher vacancies. It was the first certification waiver the district had filed with the TEA in at least a decade, except for the one allowing for Mike Miles to serve as superintendent.

District administrators initially attempted to pursue a “District of Innovation” status during the 2020-21 academic year partially so it could start future academic years earlier and hire more non-certified teachers in certain fields, but the effort failed when it didn’t get approval from HISD’s District Advisory Committee. 

At the time, teachers unions and other employee groups opposed the innovation plan largely because it would have allowed the district to hire uncertified vocational educators. They also criticized administrators for not providing enough information about the plan and expressed fears that the district would expand the plan’s scope if it passed. 

The district’s seven-member DOI committee, which includes school board member Janette Garza-Lindner, HISD’s deputy chief of staff Jessica Morffi and other community members, developed this year’s plan. It still needs approval from the advisory committee and appointed school board before it goes into effect. 

STAAR PERFORMANCE: HISD considers bold plan to reach 15-point gains in scores in 5 years

The DAC plans to provide feedback on this year’s plan at a meeting Wednesday and then the DOI committee will determine how to incorporate that feedback into the plan. The district will post the finalized DOI plan on Friday, and the DAC is scheduled to vote on the plan on Nov. 14. If approved, the HISD school board will consider the plan during their meeting on Dec. 14.

If the board gives its approved, the plan would go into effect in January 2024 and have a term of five years. It would allow the district to:

• Begin the school year before the fourth Monday in August,
• Develop a custom teacher appraisal system starting with the 2024-25 school year,
• Host more districtwide professional development opportunities,
• Hire uncertified teachers without obtaining a waiver,
• Avoid telling families if their student has an uncertified teacher,
• No longer have to designate a campus behavior coordinator at every school,
• Set custom minimum attendance requirements for class credit for eligible high school students,
• Expand the maximum class size limits for elementary school students,
• Excuse more than two days a year for college visits for high school juniors and seniors, and
• Stop sending all students to DAEP for vaping-related offenses.