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Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles speaks in front of the Houston City Council Committee on Economic Development in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Houston\u00a0ISD state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles<\/a> has published a 200-page book advising other leaders on how to reform their school districts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 200-page book, titled \u201cBy Design: How to Transform School Systems,\u201d lays out how to design a \u201ccoherent\u201d school system, establish the conditions for change and operate a \u201cNew Education System.\u201d Miles said he wrote the book to help simplify the transformation process for district leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, readers will find that there is no secret sauce or requirement for heroics,\u201d Miles wrote on LinkedIn<\/a> Monday. \u201cWhat transformation requires is an understanding of and commitment to working systemically, along with a willingness to make the tough decisions that transformation demands.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Paradigm Leaders Press published the paperback, which is being sold<\/a> on Amazon for $28.99. HISD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the book, including questions about the publishing company.<\/p>\n DISTRICT CHANGES: HISD is reorganizing its central office again. Here’s what’s changing.<\/a><\/p>\n In the book, Miles introduces the \u201cFoundational-Design-Paradigm\u201d model to guide transformation in large school districts. Under the model, leaders examine the \u201cfoundational\u201d principles that govern a system. Then, they establish the design principles of the organization and “shift the paradigms\u201d that determine how decisions are made.<\/p>\n \u201cSystems do not produce different results because people work harder, care more, or adopt better programs,\u201d Miles writes. \u201cThey produce different results when the system itself is redesigned to do so. Understanding how systems behave, and why they so often absorb, weaken or reform, is therefore the prerequisite for any serious attempts to produce durable improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In the book, Miles draws on his experience overhauling\u00a0HISD. He writes that HISD\u2019s \u201ctransformation\u201d<\/a> demonstrates that large-scale systemic change can produce \u201cdramatically\u201d different outcomes in a short period of time, although it does not come without challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said, for example, that before the 2023-24 school year,\u00a0HISD\u2019s Human Resources department aimed to fill hundreds of teacher vacancies<\/a> to achieve a goal of \u201czero vacancies,\u201d<\/a> but the measure became a \u201ccompliance exercise.\u201d Mentoring, coaching and accountability structures helped mitigate \u201cwhat might otherwise have become a much larger problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n SCHOOL BUDGET: HISD passes $2B budget, with $25M deficit heading into 2026-27 school year<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMany vacancies were filled with teachers who met the minimum requirements, such as certification, but who had not fully embraced the mental shifts required for the new instructional model and the higher expectations that accompanied it,\u201d Miles wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n HISD has reported a significant increase in teacher turnover since the beginning of the state takeover, which\u00a0some teachers said<\/a> were due to the district’s stringent expectations and culture. About 4,700 of HISD’s roughly 11,000 teachers left the district during the 2023-24 school year, according to a Chronicle analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Miles also writes that the role of elected school boards in shaping accountability is \u201cintentionally treated lightly\u201d in the book. He says in many districts, governance plays a significant role in preserving the status quo or slowing reform efforts, but he writes that governance is a \u201cconstraint to be managed,\u201d not a reason to abandon systemic reform.<\/p>\n