Houston ISD administrators are asking board members to approve a type of language partnership that Republicans have blasted as a Chinese Communist Party influence campaign.
Asher Lehrer-Small
Asher Lehrer-Small is an education reporter covering Houston ISD for the Houston Landing. His work focuses on helping families understand how HISD policies and practices impact their children, holding district leaders accountable for providing a high-quality education and giving students a voice in their school experience. He previously spent three years covering schools for The 74, a nonprofit education news outlet, where he was recognized by the Education Writers Association as one of the top three education beat reporters in the nation working at a small newsroom. His work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Fast Company, The Guardian and other outlets. He graduated from Brown University after studying education policy, and he worked as a summer school math teacher in Providence, Rhode Island. Off the clock, you can find him tending to houseplants or frying up homemade donuts for a crowd.
Posted inEducation
HISD’s special education department is improving — but it’s still lagging on a key metric
Houston ISD is making headway in serving students with disabilities, but many children still aren’t meeting their goals, a Landing review shows.
Posted inEducation
HISD illegally suspended 1 in 10 homeless students last school year, new data shows
State Rep. Gene Wu, who co-sponsored the 2019 bill that banned most suspension of homeless students, called the numbers “beyond disappointing.”
Posted inEducation
We asked 14 HISD students how school has changed under a year of Mike Miles’ leadership
Several students said their teachers apply Miles’ new rules only when there’s a classroom observer and otherwise ignore the recommended strategies.
Posted inEducation
Houston ISD backtracks on contested principal ratings after community outcry, legal concern
Dozens of community members spoke out against Superintendent Miles’ plan to use a “proficiency screening” to fire lowest-scoring campus leaders.
Posted inEducation
Dozens of Houston ISD schools will be required to make 12% budget cuts next year
Schools not participating in Superintendent Mike Miles’ overhaul program will be subject to the most drastic cuts.
Posted inEducation
Are you smarter than an HISD ‘Art of Thinking’ 6th-grader? Take this quiz to find out.
These questions from a unit exam illustrate the concepts being taught in the Houston ISD class centered on critical thinking.
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HISD’s new ‘Art of Thinking’ class is Mike Miles’ brainchild. Are kids ready for it?
Houston ISD students in 85 schools are taking courses designed to teach critical thinking skills. Critics say the classes are too complex for kids.
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HISD said 1,000 kids could get hotspots after losing free internet. Only 50 received them.
Houston ISD officials said they would work to get kids connected to the internet after a free Verizon program ended in November, but few students received assistance.
Posted inEducation
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles, citing ‘dysfunction,’ forecasts major changes to operations
Houston ISD’s leader released an “efficiency report” Tuesday detailing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in changes across the district.