Imagine no lesson plans, no grading papers at night after dinner, no phone calls to parents once the day's lessons are over, no fighting a losing battle with the copier machine. Just a day of teaching to students.
In his approach, Miles has a methodology that signals heavy respect for what good teachers can do, while at the same time relieving those teachers of some of the duties such as lesson plans that they might not want to let go. What this requires is a different kind of commitment, one that sounds like they'll need to put their cell phones in a drawer.
We met in a Lamar High storage closet where a table and chairs had been shoehorned in and as has been usual with media interviews in his initial week on the job, it was another ready-set-go rapid fire session, not leaving a lot of time for musing. Asked about critics who say that while he was superintendent in Dallas ISD — he left the district in 2015 with two years to go on his contract after asking for and not receiving changes to his contract — that test scores actually declined and that thousands of teachers left under his tenure, he responded that"People can say all kinds of things and do.
The research found was that as those who were in the ACE program at least two years rather than one, did better.. Additional variables considered included a small increase in instructional time, a requirement to adopt data-driven instruction, funds for school uniforms and enhanced professional development, according to the study's findings.
It's not on his to-do list right now, but Miles said he's be interested in talking to Teach For America at some point. The program which has been in and out at HISD, fast tracks recent non-education graduates into classrooms across the country. Criticisms include the low percentage of TFA teachers who stay in the profession beyond two years and the observation that many TFA graduates use it for its networking abilities to help[ them seek public office.