Are micro-management teachers a recipe for academic success?

The classroom of the Houston public school could have looked like any other, except for an unusual functionality on the whiteboard: a countdown.

The teacher who heads the English lesson allowed her fourth year students “10 seconds more to connect” for technological problems. She then asked the class to read a passage to determine the motivations of the author, to put the timer at a minute and to call the brands of 25 and 15 seconds. Students took 30 seconds to share answers with a partner before their daily life of 10 minutes.

The regime structure is part of a new strict education model that almost half of the 274 schools in the independent school district of Houston have been forced to adopt.

Educators must adhere closely to the study program. District officials visit schools several times a week to observe the courses and ensure that teachers follow the new protocols. Strict behavior policies are applied. Students must sometimes transport orange traffic cones to the bathroom, instead of traditional passes, as part of an effort to prevent disorders.

These ideas are not brand new, but the scale, the rhythm and the strength of change in Houston is among the most austere of modern American education.