HISD Families Divided Over School Quality: Racial Gap Revealed

Houston ISD's Family Sentiment Survey Reveals Racial Divide

Houston Independent School District (HISD) has publicly highlighted an increase in family confidence this fall, but internal survey data obtained by the Houston Chronicle reveals a significant racial divide in perspectives. While the majority of Hispanic families surveyed expressed that their schools were improving, most Black, white, and Asian families reported the opposite, according to recently released survey data.

The district initially refused to release the full results of its 2025 Family Sentiment Survey, but findings were later secured through a public records request by the Chronicle. These results indicate uneven community confidence in Superintendent Mike Miles' sweeping reforms two years into the state takeover.

In its original release, HISD leaders described the annual survey as a "learning tool" meant to measure whether families notice the same academic gains reflected in test scores. Miles stated, "A majority of families believe their school is doing better than it was a year ago. HISD families are clear: they see progress in classrooms and are confident that students are learning and being prepared for the future."

However, the district's own survey results tell a more complicated story—one divided sharply along racial and ethnic lines. This could be due, in part, to state-appointed leadership not understanding each school's unique history and community before making changes, said Kathy Blueford-Daniels, a former HISD trustee who represented historically Black schools in Fifth Ward and other parts of north Houston.

"They don't know the culture necessarily, and the culture is important to retain at these campuses, to retain these students," she said.

HISD initially did not disclose the total number of survey respondents or Black families' satisfaction levels to the public or respond to questions from reporters. The Chronicle later obtained these results through public records.

It's best practice to share all survey results in a clear and transparent way, especially since surveys are such an important resource for families, said Elizabeth Tipton, a statistics and data science professor at Northwestern University.

"It's really important for people to be able to see themselves in the data, to find themselves and to see what people in their particular part of the community think," she said.

Roughly 5,400 families, chosen at random by the district, took the survey online. About 150 families completed a paper survey that did not include demographic information. The survey represented the experiences of parents at 259 of the district's 274 campuses and was conducted in six languages.

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Despite that level of family input, HISD's largest parent groups—Black and Hispanic families—were underrepresented in the survey, according to the full results released to the Chronicle, and made up a smaller share of respondents compared to their portion of the district's population. HISD later weighted the data to adjust for that gap, but the newly released records show the full scope of families' current satisfaction with the district.

Blueford-Daniels said the underrepresentation could come from a lack of parent engagement in certain communities. She believes the district could boost that engagement by investing in programs and extracurricular activities that encourage both students and their parents and caretakers to come to campus.

With that weighted methodology, the survey results showed more families felt their school had improved over the past year, HISD said. But an analysis of those respondents across all survey questions shows that while they believe their child's school may be improving, they had negative views toward the direction of the district as a whole.

HISD said weighting responses helps make the sample more useful for all of the district's families, not just those who were most represented in the survey.

"Over the past two school years, every student group across all campus types has made significant academic progress," HISD said in a statement. "The Family Sentiment Survey is a learning tool to help HISD understand where family perspective aligns with student achievement and where it lags. The results have helped inform how HISD works to continuously improve its engagement and communication with families."

How HISD Families Answered Several Survey Questions

Do you think your child's school is better than it was a year ago?

Many Hispanic families—which represent more than three-fifths of the district—seemed to be relatively happy with recent changes. Nearly 60% of Hispanic families who responded to the question said their child's school had improved, as did 61% of economically disadvantaged families.

Around 55% of Black and Asian families who answered the same question said their child's school had not improved. More than 20% of the district's students are Black, while Asian students make up around 5%.

"While Black and Hispanic student achievement has dramatically increased over the past two years, HISD acknowledges the need to deepen partnerships with Black families, as their sentiment lags behind that of other parent groups," the district said in its September announcement.

The sentiment was most negative among white families. More than 75% of that group said they had not seen any improvements in the last school year. HISD is around 10% white.

Do You Think Houston ISD Is Improving, Getting Worse or Staying the Same?

More than 40% of Hispanic families said HISD is improving, with around 30% reporting that the district was getting worse. The same was true for economically disadvantaged families, with just over 25% of respondents saying the district was declining.

For Black families, the results were flipped: More than 42% of those who responded worried the district was "getting worse," compared to around 30% who noted improvement. Half of Asian families said the district was getting worse. Just 83 of the nearly 850 white respondents said the district was improving, with nearly 75% reporting a decline.

Do You Think HISD Is Headed in the Right Direction?

Again, more than 40% of Hispanic families seemed to approve of HISD's recent reforms. More than 43% economically disadvantaged respondents said the district was moving in the right direction, compared to less than 25% who said it was moving in the wrong direction.

Black families were more mixed. Around 27% of those who answered the question said the district was moving in the right direction, while 35% said the district was moving in the wrong direction. More than 40% of Asian families and nearly 70% of white families who answered held the same concerns, with less than 10% of white families reporting that the district was moving in the right direction.

A Stark Divide

Approval rates were starkly divided between schools within and outside of HISD's stringent reforms. Families at HISD's New Education System schools— which have lost autonomy but gained new resources under Miles in an effort to improve student outcomes—reported higher satisfaction than those at non-NES campuses.

Since the Texas Education Agency's intervention in June 2023, NES schools have seen rapid enrollment declines paired with significant improvements in many schools' annual A–F ratings.

At non-NES campuses, more families worried that the district was moving in the "wrong direction." Once told that high-performing schools would "probably look the same" under Miles' watch, some families, teachers and campus leaders have since reported that various aspects of NES schools' stricter top-down leadership have crept onto their campuses, from curriculum to teaching methods.

By May 2025, when the survey was conducted, the HISD curriculum had been used at all but five campuses. This school year, families at Durham Elementary, which is not NES, protested "disruptive" changes after HISD made it a "special focus" school.

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Looking Ahead

Still, most families said what was being taught at school met their child's needs. Most parents said they felt their children's school was preparing them for their future and that they felt their school had a "safe and welcoming environment."

Most families said they felt well-informed about their school's events and activities, an important metric as the district attempts to improve its community engagement during the state intervention. In April 2024, the district's Board of Managers issued a Community Engagement Action Plan to improve relationships with families, a push that took on new urgency after the board rated itself a 1 out of 10 on community engagement and voters rejected its $4.4 billion bond proposal.

Since then, the district has launched HISD Now—its own daily broadcast YouTube channel—and a $350,000 billboard campaign. It plans to conduct surveys twice a year to gauge families' satisfaction.

"We take seriously the areas where families want stronger connections," Miles said in September.