Colleen DeGuzman/Houston Public Media
Houston ISD’s Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center.
Campus enrollment data shows steeper declines in Houston ISD schools under the New Education System model, commonly referred to as NES, than those campuses not following the instructional reforms implemented by state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles.
An internal district document obtained by Houston Public Media, revealing a snapshot of enrollment from late October, showed 43% of NES schools reported at least a 10% decline in enrollment. In comparison, 24% of non-NES schools reported at least a 10% drop in enrollment. These figures span schools with a wide range of student populations, meaning a 10% drop can represent anything from a handful of students to several hundred.
HISD said official enrollment data would not be finalized or released until mid-December. In a statement to Houston Public Media, district spokesperson Lana Hill said based on historical data, “enrollment decline at the campuses now designated as NES started as early as 2018 and was a contributing factor in why many of these schools were identified for NES support.”
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“Definitionally, NES campuses are schools that struggled with chronic low student performance, and it is not unexpected that they would experience steeper enrollment losses.” Hill continued. “Over the past two years, these schools have seen substantial and rapid academic improvement across the board, including major gains in reading and math proficiency, stronger campus culture, and expanded instructional support. There were just 11 A- and B-rated NES campuses in 2023, and that number jumped to 94 in 2025. That’s an additional 51,000 students learning in an A- or B-rated school. With that, community perception and reputation take time to rebuild.”
Miles implemented the NES model in 2023, during the first few months of the Texas Education Agency’s takeover of the state’s largest school district. NES originally launched at 85 historically low-performing campuses. There are now 130 schools following the NES model, though Miles previously said he may bring the program to as many as 150 campuses by the 2025-2026 school year.
On HISD’s website, NES is described as a “rigorous instructional program directly tied to state standards for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level.” The site adds that pre-kindergarten through second grade at NES campuses follow a “traditional instructional model.”
Prior to the takeover and the implementation of NES, most HISD campuses operated with autonomy over staffing, schedules and instruction. The system added longer school days, district-approved classroom curriculum, additional quizzes and a greater emphasis on discipline and testing-based instruction, along with higher pay for teachers.
Is NES driving students away?
The NES model has been met with criticism from the public since it was first implemented. In March, HISD announced it would not be adding any campuses to the New Education System for this school year.
Houston Public Media spoke with a high school teacher working under the NES model. The teacher requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to speak freely about their experience.
Colleen DeGuzman
Students across 147 Houston ISD schools participated in a sick-out on Wednesday protesting against the state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles. Some who missed school gathered in front of Wharton Dual Language Academy that morning.
The teacher acknowledged enrollment was declining before the takeover, but said the downturn has ramped up after NES was implemented at their campus.
“Classes are light,” the teacher said. “When I say light, some classes may have, you know, 10 kids in it on average. Some may have 20, but that’s a major difference and we see it in the hallways.”
The teacher said the reform model’s strict, fast-paced structure is pushing students to switch schools or leave the district altogether.
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“Some parents moved out of the district. Some put their kids in charter schools, like YES Prep and KIPP,” the teacher said. “And some kids transferred to schools that weren’t NES, thinking it would be different.”
The teacher said the model leaves struggling students behind, noting that teachers have repeatedly been instructed to move quickly through material.
“I’ve sat in meetings with parents where students have cried,” the teacher said. “Parents have cried about the structure and how their kids aren’t getting what they need.”
Hill, the district spokesperson, said there is no single cause for enrollment decline, but what’s happening in HISD aligns with statewide patterns.
“Large urban non-charter districts across Texas are experiencing enrollment drops, while suburban and rural districts are seeing increases,” Hill said. “Those communities are experiencing rapid housing development and population shifts, which naturally influence school enrollment.”
Further research needed
The Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) at Rice University partners with eight Houston-area school districts, including HISD, to research critical issues. Kori Stroub, the associate director of HISD research, says overall enrollment decline is not unexpected, but pinpointing the impact on NES schools is complex.
“I think it is potentially true that NES has, or the takeover itself, has motivated some families to either leave the district or switch schools,” Stroub said. “The situation is also fairly complicated, right, in sort of understanding broader enrollment shifts and demographic changes in the district and in the Houston region.”
HERC, in collaboration with HISD, is collecting data and researching some of the demographic trends that may be contributing to enrollment drops for a report that will be released early next year. Stroub says the report aims to better understand enrollment drops and will examine whether any declines are NES-related.
“There’s declining birth rates, there’s broader demographic shifts that are just going on in the city,” Stroub said. “There’s aging populations, there’s changes in housing stock, right? You know, families are responding to all of these things and whether their neighborhood school is an NES campus is just one of them. So I think it’s tricky.”