MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Houston’s comeback: Structure, direct instruction are paying off.

“Traditional education, discipline, and careful monitoring and data analysis” are improving student performance in Houston’s New Education System (NES) schools, writes Neetu Arnold of the Manhattan Institute in City Journal.

When Mike Miles was appointed superintendent in 2023, only one in five students could read or do math at grade level, she writes. More than 120 of the district’s 274 schools had D or F ratings. The state education agency took over the district, and put Miles in charge.

Houston schools have a long way to go, but reading and math scores are improving, especially for disadvantaged students, Arnold writes.

Under NES, the district’s worst-performing schools now use the highly effective and highly structured Direct Instruction (DI) method, Arnold writes. Teachers guide student learning instead of asking them to “construct” their own learning.

Who knew that methods proven to work, work?