Did Mike Miles’ Former Charter School Network Fail to Provide Required Classes?

Dawn Miller was a true believer in Mike Miles when she started working, in March 2023, for the charter school nonprofit network Miles had founded seven years prior.

Miles started Third Future Schools (TFS) in Colorado in 2016 and later expanded to Texas, where he promised that his reform program, the “New Education System,” could turn around struggling public schools. Miller began working for Third Future Schools-Texas (TFS-Texas)—a separate nonprofit operating under the Colorado parent organization—as a teacher of a class that Miles designed called the “Art of Thinking” at Ector College Prep Middle School, a public school the charter network ran under a contract with Ector County ISD in the West Texas oil town of Odessa. Then, starting in August 2023, Miller served as an assistant principal at Sam Houston Collegiate Prep Elementary School, another TFS-Texas school in neighboring Midland ISD. 

Before TFS-Texas was contracted to operate Sam Houston Collegiate Prep in 2020, the school had received failing ratings—a designation including D, F, or “Improvement Required”—for four years running from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Under state law, if a campus fails for five consecutive years, TEA can take over the entire school district and replace its elected board with state-appointed managers. This harsh sanction can be avoided under another law, 2017’s Senate Bill 1882, which allows a district to hand over individual struggling schools to private operators in exchange for extra funding and a two-year reprieve from takeover. 

Two months before Miller became an administrator at Sam Houston College Prep, Miles left his role as CEO of TFS and TFS-Texas. TEA had taken over Houston ISD, the state’s largest school district, and tapped Miles to serve as the new superintendent.

Soon after starting at Sam Houston, Miller told the Texas Observer in an interview last year, she noticed something odd about how TFS-Texas ran the elementary school: Some classes the students were taking didn’t match their report cards.

State law requires that Texas school children take social studies—“consisting of Texas, United States and world history, government, geography, and economics”—and receive physical education, including for elementary schoolers a specified amount of daily or weekly physical activity. But, in a written complaint to TEA and interviews with the Observer, Miller alleged the school failed to provide social studies courses, a claim supported by an ex-Sam Houston teacher and TFS documents. Miller also alleged the school did not provide sufficient physical education to all students. She and two ex-teachers described problems to the Observer with the way corresponding grades were recorded.

Texas’ upper elementary school students typically take civics, Texas history, and U.S. history to fulfill social studies requirements. Instead, upper-grade students at Sam Houston took Miles’ “Art of Thinking” course, which TFS officials have argued, in response to Miller’s complaint, fulfills the state social studies requirement but which former school employees described as more of a reading or critical thinking class. 

Additionally, instead of all students taking a traditional physical education class, some took other electives instead. TFS officials have said, again in response to Miller’s complaint, that all students received sufficient physical activity “through a variety of classes” including “physical education, dance, martial arts, team sports, and fitness classes.” But Miller alleged that students in grades three through six did not receive the state-mandated hours of physical activity because these upper-grade students rotated through electives—which included, per a 2023-24 list provided by TFS, at least four classes that appear to lack physical exercise: sketching, photography, sign language, and choir.

Yet, on their report cards, Sam Houston students received grades for “Social Studies” and “Physical Education,” according to Miller and a report card reviewed by the Observer. The teachers who taught the school’s PE classes were required to enter PE grades on behalf of contractors who taught other electives, according to Miller and an ex-PE teacher. TFS has confirmed that certified teachers entered grades on behalf of these contractors.

“I initially believed a great deal in the program, but once I became an administrator and I began looking at the report cards and the schedules,” Miller said, she wondered: “How are they able to get away with not giving them [all] PE? … I saw the way they do it is by falsification of documentation.”

In May 2023, just after finishing teaching at the Odessa school, Miller was elected to the Ector County ISD school board, which put her in an awkward position that fall when the board considered ending the contract that allowed TFS-Texas to run Ector College Prep. Her boss, TFS-Texas Superintendent Zach Craddock, lobbied her to support renewal, she said. In an October 10, 2023, email to Miller, Craddock wrote: “I wish we could work with ECP for two more years. … My fear is that it will go downhill for the students and revert to what it was before.” 

But Miller abstained from voting when the board ended the contract in November 2023, believing her employment with TFS-Texas (at the Midland school at this point) presented a conflict of interest. Her relationship with Craddock then soured, she said. On February 9, 2024, Miller was abruptly fired. “You have been released from your duties as an Assistant Principal at Sam Houston for a loss of confidence in your ability to lead,” Craddock wrote in an email. 

Prior to her firing, Miller had not registered her concerns about the social studies and physical education instruction and grades. But, on the day of her termination, she filed a formal complaint with TEA about the way TFS-Texas ran Sam Houston Collegiate Prep. Her complaint, a copy of which she provided to the Observer, alleges that TFS-Texas officials “provided false/misleading information to TEA” and were in “non-compliance with Academic/Special Program Requirements.”

TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky told the Observer that Miller’s complaint “is still being reviewed” and declined further comment. 

TFS, the parent nonprofit—which handles administrative services including communication for its network schools—responded to Miller’s complaint to TEA via Midland ISD. 

In its June 10 response, which the Observer obtained from Midland ISD, TFS defended the courses at the Sam Houston school. “Grades K-4 receive social studies exposure through the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program … during our core reading block,” TFS said, and “Grades 5 and 6 participate in the ‘Art of Thinking’ class that focuses on critical thinking, problem solving and informational literacy.”

TFS added that “Art of Thinking” is “covered under the social science course catalog area.” However, “Art of Thinking” is not listed in the 2023-24 or 2024-25 master catalogs of courses approved by the Texas State Board of Education. And, ex-school employees told the Observer, the “Art of Thinking” curriculum doesn’t resemble the state social studies curriculum, which requires specific instruction on government and history.

TFS also wrote in its response that certified teachers enter grades on behalf of consultants who teach electives that satisfy physical activity requirements: “All students receive the required ‘movement’ time through a variety of classes. These classes include physical education, dance, martial arts, team sports, and fitness classes. Sam Houston provides more than standard physical education classes that most schools offer.” According to TFS, the consultants “cannot officially enter grades” because they lack Midland ISD email accounts. 

Last year, TEA investigated TFS-Texas after reporting by Spectrum News and the Observer raised questions about the nonprofit’s finances, out-of-state funds transfers, and compliance with federal tax reporting requirements and provisions of state business law. TEA concluded that “No violations of applicable laws have occurred by either the Partnering Districts or Third Future Schools – Texas,” though the agency did not address all matters raised by the media outlets’ reporting. While TEA’s report emphasized that TFS-Texas’ charter schools are not covered by some state education laws, it stressed that they are subject to requirements in contracts with partner school districts. 

TFS-Texas’ contracts with Midland, Ector County, and Austin ISDs all require, or required, it to follow state core curriculum mandates, though all three districts gave the operator “the sole authority to approve all curriculum decisions beyond the minimum requirements” outlined in the Texas Education Code. Ector County ISD ended its contract with TFS-Texas after the 2023-24 school year; recently, Midland ISD renewed its contract for another three years, and Austin renewed its agreement for another year.

TEA shared Miller’s complaint with Midland ISD, but spokesperson Lyndsey White did not answer the Observer’s questions about whether the district independently investigated the allegations. “Per the contract between MISD and Third Future Schools—Sam Houston Collegiate Preparatory Elementary (operating partner), it is the operating partner’s responsibility to ensure that the education plan in place satisfies the minimum requirements set by the state and is upheld,” said White in a statement.

Kelsey Kling, a policy expert who worked in TEA’s curriculum department from 2009 to 2022 before joining the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT), told the Observer that no Texas public school is exempt from the core curriculum mandates regarding social studies, PE, and other state-required subjects. “They are not allowed to unilaterally decide to eliminate any of the required instruction,” Kling said. “The question is—are they teaching the required [Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills] TEKS? And if they are not, they are absolutely out of compliance.” 

Third Future Schools spokesperson Whitney Nichols told the Observer: “We do not have anything additional to provide at this time.” 

Sam Houston Collegiate Prep’s master course schedule, which TFS sent to the Observer in response to a request, shows that students in the third through sixth grades were taught “Art of Thinking,” and it does not list a history or civics class, mostly aligning with what TFS told TEA. But a grade for “Social Studies” is listed on a 2023 student report card the Observer separately obtained. Laura Lunsford, who worked as a math curriculum writer and a math teacher at Ector College Prep and Sam Houston Collegiate Prep from 2022 to 2024, told the Observer that the person listed as teaching social studies on a sixth grader’s report card taught “Art of Thinking.”

While TFS claims that “Art of Thinking” satisfies the state social studies requirement, former teachers told the Observer the “Art of Thinking” curriculum doesn’t resemble the state’s social studies standards. 

The third and fourth grade “Art of Thinking” curriculum provided by TFS, along with PowerPoint lessons for that course at the fifth and sixth grade levels from Houston ISD, show students are taught to: “distinguish between emotion and logical reactions,” “determine the objectivity and subjectivity of various media,” and “compare and contrast the scientific method and a problem solving methodology,” among other skills. 

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles in June 2023 in Houston (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP)

By contrast, the state’s third grade social studies standards include Texas students understanding “the concept of the free enterprise system,” identifying the historical roles of Benjamin Franklin and Daniel Boone, and interpreting maps. The fourth grade standards cover comparing the ways of life of pre-colonial American Indian peoples in Texas and studying the legacies of Barbara Jordan and Ann Richards, while the fifth grade requirements include grasping the American Revolution, the War of 1812, slavery, and the Civil War. The sixth grade standards include analyzing how colonization, immigration, and trade shaped societies worldwide; identifying “landforms, water bodies, and urban centers”; and being able to “compare and contrast free enterprise, socialist, and communist economies.”

Lunsford said she believes that TFS-Texas didn’t provide social studies or physical education to all students because the state doesn’t test elementary students on those subjects and the charter nonprofit’s main mission is to increase standardized test scores. She described “Art of Thinking” as “another reading class,” a subject that is tested.

Miller said that because the charter claims “Art of Thinking” as social studies, “The teacher is forced to create a falsified social studies grade,” adding: “It is a really nice class, but it’s not social studies.”

Miller and a former PE teacher told the Observer that Sam Houston Collegiate Prep asked PE teachers to assign grades to students who didn’t take their physical education classes. 

“There was a lot of the school that didn’t receive any PE at all the entire year,” said the PE teacher, referring to traditional physical education courses. The ex-teacher asked not to be identified by name because she feared retribution. She said she reported the issue to an office manager and to Miller, whose complaint to the TEA includes PE-related allegations. “They’d put pressure on us to submit these grades, but we’re not really seeing these kids.” 

The PE teacher said she did not have knowledge of how much physical activity the kids she entered grades for were getting through other electives. She had an “unethical feeling” about inputting the grades, she told the Observer, and she left after the 2023-24 school year.

On the other hand, Kay McIness, an art instructor on contract at Sam Houston from October 2023 to May of last year, was concerned that she never recorded attendance or grades for students she did teach. “I was told that if the students continued to not participate, to let the [PE teachers] know, and they would put it down as they didn’t participate, and so therefore they couldn’t get an A,” McIness said. 

In its response to Miller’s complaint, TFS stated that students met PE requirements through a number of courses, citing only the following electives: “dance, martial arts, team sports, and fitness classes.” But Miller said students rotated through electives, some of which lacked physical activity. The full list of electives for the 2023-24 school year that TFS sent the Observer consists of: volleyball, team sports, martial arts, sketching, photography, sign language, and choir. 

Any class with the right amount of physical activity could meet state requirements, said Kling, the former TEA employee who now works for the AFT. The Texas Education Code requires students from kindergarten through grade 5 to “participate in moderate or vigorous daily physical activity for at least 30 minutes throughout the school year as part of the district’s physical education curriculum or through structured activity during a school campus’s daily recess” (or, in some cases, 135 minutes a week or 225 minutes every two weeks). Miller said Sam Houston did not have structured activities during recess. 

After reviewing allegations about the recording of PE grades in Miller’s complaint, Kling said she believed that the Sam Houston grading system could violate a state law requiring districts to have classroom teachers “assign a grade that reflects the student’s relative mastery of an assignment.” 

Kling added: “When you’re entering in a grade, that goes into the student’s transcript, that’s a local record. And it’s a government document. So by adding this, [you’re] certifying that this student received this grade in this subject area because they received this instruction and met proficiency. … You are not the correct person to be entering that information [if] you did not certify that the student demonstrated proficiency.”

TFS did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment on whether its practice of using certified teachers to record grades for contractors might violate state law. 

After TFS-Texas took over Sam Houston Collegiate Prep in 2020, the charter increased per-pupil spending at the school by almost $4,000 and stressed the need to prepare students for standardized state tests on reading and math, per TEA data and interviews. 

The charter’s tenure has indeed coincided with improved test scores: STAAR reading scores rose from 31 percent of students meeting standards before the takeover to 54 percent in the 2023-24 school year; STAAR math scores for students meeting standards rose from 27 to around 34 percent over the same period. But the charter school’s goal in its MISD contract was to improve to a B rating, according to a copy of the contract and the MISD spokesperson. While the school did receive a B rating from TEA in 2021-22, it received a C in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, based on the district’s projected ratings. In the meantime, certified teachers diminished from 81 percent of instructors in 2019 to 30 percent by June 2024.

Miller told the Observer last year that she’d attempted to contact TEA multiple times to ask for an update on her complaint but had received little response.

“It [Miles’ New Education System] looks good. It sounds good. But it’s not real,” Miller said, citing a lack of essay writing and group projects necessary to prepare students for high school or college. “How well do you think those students will perform? Not very. Because they’ve never done things that are fundamentally expected in any other system,” she said, adding: “It’s really smoke and mirrors.”

Miller told the Observer that she separately filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against TFS to contest her firing, which she believed resulted from retaliation for abstaining from the 2023 vote that ended the organization’s contract with Ector County ISD. After participating in an interview with the Observer and providing a copy of her complaint, Miller said she had signed an agreement with TFS that limited her ability to speak further about the complaint. TFS did not respond to a request for comment on the agreement.

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