Walk into a Houston public school classroom these days, and you might spot something unexpected: a countdown timer on the whiteboard. This isn’t just a quirky addition—it’s part of a tightly structured teaching model that’s stirring up quite the debate.

Nearly half of Houston’s 274 public schools have adopted this approach, where lessons are timed down to the second. For example, a fourth-grade teacher might give students exactly one minute to read a passage, with reminders at 25 and 15 seconds. After that, they’ve got 30 seconds to share answers with a partner before diving into a 10-minute quiz. It’s all part of a plan to boost academic outcomes,