'Drilling And Killing'

For almost a decade, Graham used these strategies, and its scores stayed high. Under Helwig's leadership, it was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. The award is given to schools for progress in closing achievement gaps.

Blaine Helwig (center) accepts a Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership from the U.S. Department of Education in 2012. He was recognized for bringing "student scores from 'barely acceptable' to exemplary in five years." | U.S. Department of Education Blaine Helwig (center) accepts a Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership from the U.S. Department of Education in 2012. He was recognized for bringing "student scores from 'barely acceptable' to exemplary in five years." | U.S. Department of Education

But it was never celebrated as a solution in AISD.

One reason, Reyes said: "Blaine was completely disliked."

Reyes, who retired last year, was the only educator willing to speak on the record. KUT talked to eight others who worked with Helwig, but none wanted to be quoted for job reasons. Helwig, who retired in 2016, spoke with KUT for months, but in the end, didn't want to be recorded out of fear of retaliation.

Before he came into education, Helwig was a structural engineer, designing bridges. He also has a degree in accounting. He's a numbers guy, Reyes said, so he focused on what data told him worked, not what the district told him.

"Blaine was completely disliked."

"I have to say, part of it is that Blaine is the type of personality of 'I'm going to do what's right and I don't care what you tell me,'" she said. "That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He doesn't play the game, and he created a lot of enemies that way."

This is how intense the pushback to his methods is: Last May, text messages from then-school board President Kendall Pace were made public. In the texts, she expressed frustration to another board member about the achievement gap and lack of effort to close it. She texted that the district should be using Helwig's methods at some of its low-performing schools.

Kendall Pace resigned as president of the school board following controversy after texts were released showing her support of Helwig's methods. | Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon Kendall Pace resigned as president of the school board following controversy after texts were released showing her support of Helwig's methods. | Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon

That didn't sit well with the local teachers union, which held a press conference asking for her to step down.

The texts came out on a Wednesday. The following Monday, Pace resigned.

A regularly scheduled school board meeting was held that night. Half the people who signed up for public comment expressed outrage at Pace's support of Helwig's strategies. One of the most popular ways critics described it: "drilling and killing."

Pace's texts not only referenced Helwig, but also Betty Jenkins, his domestic partner.

Jenkins implemented his strategies as a principal at Blackshear Elementary. Blackshear's test scores skyrocketed, and the school earned a Blue Ribbon award from the federal government.

Jenkins brought the practice to other elementary schools. Most of the people speaking at the May school board meeting encountered these reading strategies at those schools. No one at the meeting was from the Graham community.

Deborah Trejo, an AISD parent who serves on multiple committees within the district, expressed anger about Pace's praise of Jenkins and Helwig.

"[They] are not literacy experts, but have paternalistically decided that at the most economically disadvantaged schools, the only thing that matters is short-term STAAR results," she said during public comment. "And students should be fed a grueling diet of daily test prep and weekly practice tests."

Community members slammed Helwig's teaching strategies at a school board meeting in May 2018. | Gabriel C. Pérez Community members slammed Helwig's teaching strategies at a school board meeting in May 2018. | Gabriel C. Pérez

A common theme community members brought up was that schools take away other opportunities from students when they focus only on a test.

"Children's spirit, imagination, creativity, their ability to dream, the things that make them human and provide meaning are stifled and sacrificed in the name of the God of testing," AISD grad Rocio Villalobos said. "The same is true for teachers and their imagination and creativity."

Some speakers asked the board to stop practices like the 1,000-word challenge and instead focus on more creative ways of teaching, like project-based learning, a holistic method that requires students to work together using knowledge from multiple subject areas. Its aim is to teach communication skills and show students how what they learn in class applies to the real world.

Helwig would argue, however, students can't thrive in a more creative learning environment if they can't read at grade level.