HOUSTON — The final draft of Houston ISD’s District of Innovation (DOI) plan was released Friday.

The final draft includes about 10 changes due to feedback from the District Advisory Committee (DAC), which was put together to examine the outcomes of the district becoming a DOI. (see changes below)

A DOI allows more than 60 exemptions from state laws over school operations. Those exemptions include teacher certification and contracts, teacher benefits and student discipline provisions. 

More than 960 school districts across the state fall under this process.

The DOI Committee wanted to begin instruction for students before the fourth Monday in August, creating 180 instructional days in the calendar year for all students in the district, which is a minimum of eight more instructional days. 

DAC feedback: Parents and families would like the opportunity to provide feedback on the HISD school calendar. Teachers were concerned about compensation for those days.

DOI Committee changes: Added implementation guidance that HISD should solicit community input on the revised school year calendar. The committee also clarified that the 2024-2025 school year calendar would not exceed 180 student-teacher contact days. Additional guidance was added to reiterate that a competitive compensation package reflecting the expanded duties would be implemented.

The DOI Committee wanted to seek the ability to set the process for developing a local teacher appraisal system by the end of the year, for implementation in the 2024-2025 school year.

DAC feedback: The implementation guidelines were not sufficient, and the implementation timeline was too fast.

DOI Committee changes: Strengthened the implementation guidelines to provide clarity on the development of the appraisal system including, delaying the start date to no earlier than the 2025-2026 school year, directing the district to solicit rigorous community and teacher input on the system, and on component weighing and clarifying the use of student surveys.

The DOI Committee wanted the ability to have more district- and division-based professional development opportunities to equip educators with the resources and skills necessary to improve student achievement.

DAC feedback: Understood the need for centralized training, but also said that campus-based PD was very important. They wanted to make sure that PD was tailored to the unique needs of specialized schools.

DOI Committee changes: Added implementation guidance that clarifies campus-level professional development will continue to occur and indicated that most professional development will happen at the campus location. The committee also committed to ensuring that each campus would have a role in designing professional development offerings for their campus and added language to ensure that all professional development took place in a productive environment with the appropriate number of attendees, given the venue.

The DOI Committee wanted flexibility to hire teachers (the exemption does not apply to Special Education teachers whose certification cannot be waived) who do not hold a certification and waive the requirement to present a certification at the time of hire for filing.

DAC feedback: Concerned about placing uncertified teachers in elementary and middle school classrooms, and indicated three years was too long to complete the certification process. There was also concern about the rigor of hiring teachers.

DOI Committee changes: Added implementation guidelines to ensure this exemption will only be used at the high school level and uncertified teachers will need to be certified in two years instead of three years. The committee also said the district will have a rigorous hiring process.

The DOI Committee wanted to lift the requirement to submit written notice to parents and guardians of students assigned to inappropriately or uncertified teachers.

DAC feedback: The District needed to maintain transparency and that includes parental notification of uncertified teachers. 

DOI Committee changes: We considered the benefits and harms of including this waiver at this time and removed this exemption from the plan.

The DOI Committee wanted to lift the requirement to designate a campus behavior coordinator.

DAC feedback: Concerned about the potential lack of a point person for behavioral issues.

DOI Committee changes: We considered the benefits and harms of including this waiver at this time and removed the exemption from the plan.

The DOI Committee wanted an exemption for the flexibility in determining minimum attendance requirement for class credit for eligible high school students.

DAC feedback: Preferred to expand this exemption to middle school.

DOI Committee changes: We considered the benefits and potential harm to students by expanding this exemption to middle school and found that the benefit of maintaining the exemption as written outweighed the benefit of expanding to middle school. There is too much risk in allowing younger students to miss more instructional time.

The DOI Committee wanted autonomy for flexibility in determining class size.

DAC feedback: There wasn’t enough clarity around implementation and expressed concern about impacts on teachers if this exemption is included.

DOI Committee changes: We considered the benefits and harms of including this waiver at this time and removed the exemption from the plan.

The DOI Committee wanted to lift the requirement to excuse a maximum of two days for visits to higher education institutions for juniors and seniors.

DAC feedback: The exemption was too limited in its definitions of higher education.

DOI Committee changes: We expanded the exemption to cover military and trade schools.

The DOI Committee wanted an exemption for mandatory DAEP placement for vaping-related offenses.

DAC feedback: Concern about disciplinary action for repeat vaping offenders.

DOI Committee changes: We clarified the need to develop disciplinary interventions for repeat offenders in the implementation guidance.

DAC is scheduled to take public comment and vote on this plan at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 14. If DAC approves the plan, it will be added to the agenda of HISD’s December 14 board meeting.

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