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Even amid the chaos of the first day of school at Aldine ISD’s Reed Academy, Superintendent LaTonya Goffney radiates calm and confidence.

She commands every space she enters, and not just because her outfit for the occasion is a striking jade green pantsuit. Children gleefully high-five the seventh-year superintendent as she strides through the halls. Teachers stop in their tracks to greet her, bouncing in excitement as they embrace. Her jokes, told through a beaming smile, send ripples of laughter through classrooms.

“Y’all are going to have an incredible year,” Goffney tells one fifth-grade class.

Goffney’s cheerfulness, however, belies an increasingly uncomfortable truth: Aldine and its superintendent desperately need an incredible year.

After six years of leading Aldine, home to about 58,000 students in one of Texas’ lowest-income communities, Goffney has yet to prove she’s capable of revitalizing the northern Harris County district.

Under Goffney’s watch, students in Greater Houston’s sixth-largest district have fallen even further behind children from similar backgrounds, leaving them less prepared for life after high school, according to state data. Meanwhile, district leaders say they’re still struggling to understand why they aren’t seeing improvement, falling back on optimism that plans put in place over the past several years will finally bear fruit. 

In recent years, roughly 80 percent of Aldine seniors graduated on time, a number that ranks among the lowest in Texas and hasn’t budged under Goffney’s administration. 

About half of seniors in Goffney’s first five graduating classes were considered ready for college or a career by the state, the lowest rate among Texas’ 54 districts with more than 25,000 students. 

And Aldine children have scored significantly worse on state standardized tests in math since the pandemic, with results plummeting faster than in similar Texas school districts.

In addition, a growing number of Aldine students have been taught by an increasingly inexperienced and unsettled staff during Goffney’s tenure. Last school year, nearly one-in-five teachers had no prior classroom experience, annual teacher turnover approached 30 percent and nearly half of their new teacher hires were uncertified, according to state data.

“Of all the questions that plagued me, that is the one that has literally kept me up at night. Thinking about: Why we haven’t gotten the huge gains. Why haven’t we been able to move the needle further?” Goffney said.

While Goffney’s administration has attempted a handful of new initiatives — a new approach to literacy instruction, dramatically overhauling two schools, opening a campus for recent immigrants — few have produced notable, districtwide results. Rather than trying sweeping reforms, Aldine leaders have moved at a more gradual pace, leading some local advocates and leaders to question the district’s strategy.

“The school district has to rethink its approach now,” said Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, whose precinct includes large parts of Aldine. “… You just absolutely cannot accept the status quo if you see your numbers are not moving in the best direction.”

In a late April interview, Goffney offered multiple reasons outside of her control for Aldine’s stagnation. 

The district, Goffney said, was in worse shape than she realized upon taking the job, with campus leaders lacking an understanding of student performance. The COVID-19 pandemic hit at the end of her second school year. And a statewide teacher shortage has made it harder to hire quality teachers, she said. 

Despite the district’s unremarkable results, Goffney has maintained strong support in Aldine and Texas’ broader education community. 

The district’s elected school board, which is responsible for hiring the superintendent, continues to back her leadership. Board President Kimberly Booker said Goffney has brought “excitement” and “innovation” to Aldine, with trustees typically giving her the equivalent of a B grade on her annual evaluation. (Goffney’s evaluations are not a public record under state law.) 

A charismatic, authoritative speaker, Goffney also remains in high demand across Texas. She serves on several groups and committees shaping statewide education policy, and she’s a sought-after media source for her perspective on public schools.

Still, Goffney acknowledged that the window for her to get numerical results in Aldine is closing. She says she deserves some more time, distanced from the effects of the pandemic, to turn the district around. She’s adamant that staying the course with the plans put in place over the past several years will help Aldine turn the corner.

“God knows we’re not where we want to be, at all,” Goffney said. “But we’re working hard to get there.”

A district in need

Aldine covers more than 110 square miles across northern Harris County, spanning from Houston’s Acres Homes to the western edge of Humble. 

Many students rely on schools for basic needs, such as food and hygiene. Roughly 40 percent of children are learning English as a second language while their family speaks another language at home. About 9,000 students are recent immigrants, meaning they came to the U.S. in the last three years.

Like many other districts serving large numbers of students from lower-income families, Aldine’s academic results have traditionally ranked well behind wealthier districts. And while Aldine receives above-average funding — about $15,500 per child in 2022-23, compared to the state average of $12,800 — it’s not nearly enough to close the gap.

Aldine’s poverty levels and relatively poor academic performance have fueled an undeserved, unflattering reputation of the district, said Alma Maldonado, who has three children in Aldine and formed Ermel Elementary School’s Parent-Teacher Organization.

“We would get a lot of negative reactions from people when they ask where you’re zoned to and we say, ‘Aldine,’” Maldonado said. “… And you’re like, ‘What does everybody seem to know that we don’t know?’”

Many Aldine parents work long hours to make ends meet, leaving little time to advocate for districtwide changes compared to parents in higher-income districts. Maldonado said it’s difficult to organize busy parents, noting that she has more success reaching them with paper flyers than email. School board meetings are generally painless affairs, while in many nearby districts, they’re often a hub for parent feedback and criticism of the district’s leadership.

Voter turnout in Aldine school board elections over the past decade has also been relatively low, with an average of 7 percent of registered voters casting ballots, among the lowest rates in the region. Incumbent trustees often win comfortably or run unopposed. The average tenure of Aldine’s seven-member board is 14 years in office. 

“To feel like you can question authority is a place of privilege,” said former Aldine Chief of Staff Sheleah Reed, who resigned from her position in August to spend more time with her family.  

“I think the population, the demographics, are people who are not speaking out. They’re not asking a lot of questions. And I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be. … What I have learned is that all the parents want what’s best for their kids. And they’re trusting you to do it.”

‘Then 2020 happened’

Goffney arrived in Aldine in 2018 following a five-year stint as superintendent in Lufkin ISD, an 8,000-student district in east Texas.

A child of poverty herself, born to a 15-year-old single mother in a small town just north of Greater Houston, Goffney can intimately understand many of the challenges facing Aldine students and families. 

Aldine’s school board members also saw Goffney as a fresh voice after the district’s longtime superintendent, Wanda Bamberg, and her second-in-command retired following a combined 75 years in the district. At the time, Aldine’s test scores and measures of post-graduation readiness were lagging behind other similar districts. (Efforts to reach Bamberg were unsuccessful.)

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The earliest big moves of Goffney’s administration included launching several new initiatives and unveiling a five-year strategic plan. 

The district overhauled its approach to literacy in 2020, emphasizing the science of reading — which hinges on teaching children how to sound out words — and using an Amplify curriculum that helps teachers identify where students are struggling.

The district also joined the state-sponsored System of Great Schools, aiming to add more programs and academic options across the district. And it launched a campus turnaround model, known as ACE, that involved putting highly rated educators in classrooms, extending the school day and helping students with their non-academic needs at two schools.

“The wind was at our backs. The momentum was there,” Goffney said. “It was exciting, 2019.

“Then 2020 happened.” 

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The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Aldine community and its students particularly hard.

The region’s death and hospitalization rates were higher than many surrounding areas. Public officials describe Aldine as a “healthcare desert,” where residents lack access to quality, nearby medical care. Many children in Aldine also live with their grandparents, which made them reluctant to go back to school and risk bringing COVID home to older, more vulnerable family members.

Aldine campuses remained closed for the last three months of the 2019-20 school year and the first several weeks of the 2020-21 school year. Even when buildings reopened, many students chose to remain at home, learning online without real-time interaction with teachers. By the end of the school year, 38 percent of students still hadn’t returned to campus.

Goffney and district leaders view the number of children that stayed in online classes as a major reason why students have fallen behind and the literacy plan didn’t make a splash.

Without COVID, Goffney said, “Our story would have been totally different. … Five years would’ve been enough time.”

Compare and contrast

While COVID undeniably impacted students throughout Aldine, the pandemic alone doesn’t fully explain the district’s current troubles. Other, similar districts that also endured significant fallout from COVID have rebounded better than Aldine academically. 

Pasadena ISD, for example, saw slightly higher COVID case and death rates than Aldine, according to a Landing analysis of ZIP code-level data published by the Harris County Public Health and Houston Health departments. Yet the district reading scores and college and career readiness rates have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, with some added growth.

Aldine’s neighbor to the south, Houston ISD, also produced big test score gains in reading and math in 2023-24 at its historically lowest-performing schools under state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles, according to preliminary data released by the state. (Aldine’s results on state tests were roughly flat compared to 2023.)

HISD made several major changes at dozens of those schools, such as requiring over 1,000 teachers to reapply for their jobs; taking a more rigid approach to teaching and learning; and tying teacher pay more closely to student test scores. Many community members and teachers, however, say the approach puts too much emphasis on standardized tests and micromanages teachers.

“I don’t have a good opinion about Mike Miles, but I don’t disagree that maybe a little bit of disruption is a good thing,” said Garcia, the county commissioner.

In response to comparisons of the district’s recent performance, some Aldine leaders said they’re reluctant to measure themselves against other districts.

“I would hesitate to compare to other districts, because I feel very strongly that our district is unique in the work that we have to do, and the students that we serve,” Aldine Chief Academic Officer Faviola Cantú said. “… I just think that the numbers don’t tell what’s happening in our district.”

Unprepared teachers, underwhelming outcomes

District leaders also admit they’re struggling to hire quality teachers who help students learn, hindering Aldine’s progress.

About 19 percent of Aldine teachers in 2022-23 were new to the profession, up from roughly 10 percent prior to Goffney’s arrival. Aldine’s teacher turnover rate of 27 percent in 2022-23 also ranked among the highest in the state, ticking up slightly during Goffney’s tenure. 

“If I can just be transparent and honest, we can have the best materials, but if we don't have the best teachers who can teach it in a way that kids can understand … then we're going to continue to struggle,” Goffney said.

In exit interviews over the past two school years, about two-thirds of nearly 1,100 employees surveyed said they would consider returning to Aldine in the future, according to district summaries of the interviews. However, departing employees most often cited a toxic and stressful work environment and disagreement with top leadership in their decision to leave, the records show.

“This included disrespect by principals, disrespect by assistant principals, and disagreement with decisions made by district leadership about new curricula and other new processes and procedures,” district staff wrote in the summaries. “Respondents felt that many of the decisions being made were not student-focused.”

And while the district depends more on them than ever, exiting first-year educators said they weren’t given “adequate training or support to be successful” in Aldine, district staff wrote. 

When asked what specific steps they have taken or will take to respond to former employees’ concerns, district spokesperson Sylvia Samuel-Baston did not offer any. 

In interviews, Aldine administrators pointed to the district’s participation in Texas' Teacher Incentive Allotment — a voluntary program that delivers more money for teacher salaries to districts that use a state-approved educator evaluation system — as a method of retaining teachers. While Aldine joined the five-year-old initiative early, nearly all large Houston-area districts now participate or have submitted applications to join.

Reed, the former chief of staff, said the Aldine area’s reputation and lower quality of living relative to neighboring districts work against the district. Goffney noted that one-third of teachers live within Aldine’s boundaries.

“I think we’re betting that when they get here, they fall in love,” Reed said.

Staying the course

While Aldine’s relatively poor results haven’t drawn widespread attention, they have had a day-to-day impact on students and families across the district.

Lifelong Aldine resident Carmen Aguilar sends her daughter roughly 11 miles away from their home in East Aldine near MacArthur High School to attend one of the district’s magnet schools, Victory Early College High School. 

Every Victory Early College High senior graduated on time in 2022, and roughly two-thirds of graduates typically enroll in a Texas college or university. MacArthur High, by contrast, graduated 83 percent of seniors and sends about one-third of them to college.

“MacArthur got me ready to be an adult … like just a regular adult, right? Victory College prepares you for college life,” Aguilar said. “In order for my daughter to excel, I needed her in an environment that was going to ask more of her, challenge her.”

For now, Aldine leaders are banking that the district’s literacy framework, added programs and other recent initiatives will finally produce results across the district. 

A new five-year plan launched this summer promises more improvement — including reducing the district’s especially high chronic absenteeism rate and expanding access to college prep courses — though it contains few detailed plans for accomplishing those goals.

“When you’re realistic, and you’re willing to put in the work, you’re on the right path,” said Booker, the school board president. 

“But if you’re sitting in La La Land, saying, 'Oh, we’re good, things are going to work itself out,’ no, it’s not going to work itself out.”

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