{"id":456975,"date":"2026-10-05T13:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456975\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:48:31","slug":"a-look-inside-the-efforts-to-turn-an-eastside-school-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456975\/","title":{"rendered":"A look inside the efforts to turn an Eastside school around"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hirsch Elementary School students on the East Side started the school year weeks before the rest of San Antonio Independent School District. They\u2019ll also end the academic year a few days after most of their peer schools. <\/p>\n

Those changes are meant to accelerate learning in a school that\u2019s struggled academically for years.<\/p>\n

Hirsch got a fourth consecutive failed rating from the state\u2019s A-F accountability system this year \u2014 just as SAISD officials had predicted before the 2025-26 school year ended.<\/p>\n

As a result, SAISD\u2019s school board entered into a a three-year contract with Third Future Schools, a Colorado-based education network known for quickly turning around failing campuses by zeroing in on math and literacy scores.<\/p>\n

Now, Third Future is running three SAISD campuses including Hirsch, Ogden Elementary and Tafolla Middle School. Edgewood ISD also partnered with the network to take over Brentwood Middle School on the West Side.<\/p>\n

Handing over control of these campuses to Third Future was met with sharp criticism<\/a> in both districts from families and community members who wanted to keep local control and worried the network\u2019s model was too rigid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many misconceptions about what we do,\u201d said LaToya Miley, deputy superintendent of the network. \u201cWe just have a very specific, intentional model\u2026 We prioritize instructional time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Assistant Principal Jamarcus Smith visits with students during a lunch period at Hirsch Elementary School on Sept. 23, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Third Future officials say the model helps close learning gaps, especially prevalent amongst Black and brown students and economically disadvantaged students, which make up the majority of the network\u2019s total student base.<\/p>\n

At Hirsch, which serves around 500 students, 96% of students are economically disadvantaged, 60% are Hispanic, and 38.5% are Black. Across all of SAISD, however, only 5.4% of students are Black.<\/p>\n

A day inside Hirsch Elementary<\/p>\n

Classes at Hirsch Elementary School start at 7:30 a.m., but the building opens every day at 6:30 a.m. to allow students to get there earlier.<\/p>\n

Students aren\u2019t required to have backpacks. If a student does bring a backpack, they leave it at the front entrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provide everything,\u201d and don\u2019t assign homework, said Miley. \u201cMany of the times, the support is not at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Third Future model is most visible in second through fifth grade, where students receive four 90-minute learning blocks for core subjects like math, reading, science and the \u201cArt of Thinking\u201d or social studies.<\/p>\n

Those blocks are broken up into 40-minute lessons where students follow along with a work packet. Every four minutes, teachers engage students by doing quick checks for understanding, cold-calling on students or doing the \u201cwhip around,\u201d when students stand up for a few seconds before diving back into the lesson.<\/p>\n

During a recent morning at Hirsch, fifth-graders learned about energy transformation during their science block.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrack me,\u201d called out Nathalie Mclean, a fifth-grade science teacher at Hirsch.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrack me!\u201d the class responded quickly. It\u2019s a common callback used on the campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"Third Future Schools teacher Nathalie McLean hands out worksheets to students in her fifth grade science class at Hirsch Elementary School on Sept. 23, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

After Mclean\u2019s lesson on energy transformation, students have to answer at least four of five questions correctly. It\u2019s what Third Future calls a \u201cdemonstration of learning,\u201d or exit ticket.<\/p>\n

Those who answer four of five questions correctly exit the classroom and move to a \u201cteam center,\u201d usually located in the library, to work independently.<\/p>\n

Students who don\u2019t master the exit ticket stay in the classroom for small group instruction. <\/p>\n

This how teachers gather data every day, said Miley.<\/p>\n

At the team center, students work quietly in rows of desks on a different worksheet as a teacher supervises. The students\u2019 goal is to \u201clevel up,\u201d or show higher levels of mastery than they did in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Students who \u201clevel up\u201d 10 times in two weeks earn a bag of Takis and a Capri-Sun \u2014 the reward the students asked for, assistant principal Smith said. <\/p>\n

This is what grades 2-5 look like, which is also similar to how Third Future works in middle schools<\/a>. The only difference in second grade is that students don\u2019t push out to the team centers \u2014 that starts in third grade.<\/p>\n

Kindergarten and first grade incorporate some of the model with demonstrations of learning, but those are \u201cchunked\u201d using shorter lessons.<\/p>\n

\"\"Students work on level up coursework as a part of Third Future School\u2019s curriculum structure at Hirsch Elementary School on Sept. 23, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The preschool classes are \u201ctraditional\u201d pre-K, said Miley, with play-based learning and skills-based lessons, but Third Future does require some of its strategies to be used, like \u201cturn and talk\u201d or quick-response cards.<\/p>\n

While color is somewhat limited across the campus and at the principal\u2019s discretion, the preschool classrooms walls are bright and cheery.<\/p>\n

The school also offers physical education, art and musical theater as electives rotated every nine weeks. Student also have a recess period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re kids, and we let them be kids,\u201d said Miley.<\/p>\n

Part of the Third Future model is also about quashing disciplinary issues. Campus administrators mostly work from standing desks in the hallways and students use a visual system to use the restroom, placing cones outside to indicate it\u2019s in use.<\/p>\n

While Third Future usually enforces stricter dress codes with uniforms at the campuses they operate, Smith said Hirsch families pushed back on that rule before the school year started, so the school uses the standard SAISD dress code guidelines.<\/p>\n

Growing two years in 184 days<\/p>\n

Third Future Schools, which has a presence in Colorado, Texas and Louisiana, has an overall goal of growing students two school years\u2019 worth of learning within 184 instructional days. That\u2019s the only way to close learning gaps, said network superintendent Zach Craddock.<\/p>\n

Right now, Third Future is growing students at an average of 1.88 years during one school cycle, according to its own measurements. By 2030, the network hopes to have 100 \u201cproof points\u201d to back up the effectiveness of its education model.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cHabits of Success\u201d tickets sit with school work and supplies on a student\u2019s desk at Hirsch Elementary School. The tickets earned by students can buy used to purchase treats from the school store. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

This school year, Third Future more than doubled its reach, by adding 16 campuses to its network. It\u2019s now operating 26 schools overall, 19 of which are in Texas.<\/p>\n

In Texas, Senate Bill 1882 incentivizes districts to partner with outside groups in order to get thousands of additional state dollars for schools.<\/p>\n

While dollar amounts vary by campus and outside operator, Third Future Schools receives about $1,200 per student on top of the funding the district normally gets from the state, Craddock said in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The network invests most of that money in recruitment, he said. Third Future has full hiring and firing power over the teachers at its campuses under the 1882 contract set-up.<\/p>\n

There are also no substitute teachers. Third Future employs \u201cteacher apprentices\u201d who serve in teacher\u2019s assistant capacities, learning the network\u2019s method and stepping in to fill in when needed.<\/p>\n

All of the teachers at Hirsch are from San Antonio and new to Third Future, according to Smith, and six teachers who worked at the school before the network took over are still there.<\/p>\n

Entering into an 1882 deal\u00a0also buys school districts a few more years to turn a failing campus around and avoid state intervention, since the state pauses A-F ratings for two years on that campus.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a solution more districts are turning to. <\/p>\n

The Hirsch, Ogden and Tafolla campuses in SAISD and Brentwood in EISD all got their fourth consecutive failing rating this year. A fifth year means steep penalties for the districts \u2014 either school closure or state intervention in the form of a state-appointed board and superintendent.<\/p>\n

\"\"Third Future Schools Deputy Superintendent Latoya Miley gives an overview of the teacher and curriculum used at TFS campuses during a visit to Hirsch Elementary School on Sept. 23, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Third Future does have a track record of turning schools around within a couple years, taking schools from an \u201cF\u201d or \u201cD\u201d rating to a \u201cB.\u201d After the network leaves a school, however, ratings tend to dip again, because even if students are scoring at the same level on state assessments, actual growth has slowed down, and Texas weighs both.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue Third Future leaders acknowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to maintain that achievement \u2014 you may not see that very next year because you\u2019re still seeing growth, but you\u2019re not seeing growth at the same rate,\u201d said Miley. \u201cGrowth over time improves scores, but it has to lead to sustained achievement. If it doesn\u2019t, that school may rescind because the achievement is not sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n

And fewer than two months into the school year at Hirsch, students have a long way to go. During the 2026 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, only 14% of fifth-graders scored on grade level on the math portion and 29% were on level in reading.<\/p>\n

The good news, Hirsch principal Sean Langner said, is that Third Future is already seeing progress, especially in reading and writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the writing pieces, we had trouble with them even attempting to write,\u201d he said. \u201cSo now they\u2019re getting gaining more confidence \u2026 and we\u2019re kind of fine-tuning the quality of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hirsch Elementary School students on the East Side started the school year weeks before the rest of San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13499,96,134269,84882,4042,82,84,83,13504,56409,92,3028,3440],"class_list":["post-456975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-1882-partnerships","tag-east-side","tag-failing-schools","tag-hirsch-elementary-school","tag-saisd","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sb-1882","tag-third-future-schools","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-1000-1500"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}