Organizing for Transformational Change: Community Voices for Public Education and Grassroots Resistance to the State Takeover of Houston ISD

• In Event: (Re)Building Democracy in the Wake of State Takeover: Community-Led Research and Resistance as Repair

Abstract

Since the 2023 Texas Education Agency (TEA) takeover of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), local stakeholders have navigated a series of disruptive reforms, including replacement of elected trustees with an appointed board and superintendent, introduction of a rigid instructional model, closure of school libraries, and the mass churn of principals and educators (Menchaca et al., 2024). Mirroring responses to the undemocratic implementation of takeover observed in other contexts (Buras, 2014; Danley & Rubin, 2020; Lipman, 2017; Morel, 2018), an upswell of collective action has emerged to challenge HISD’s “wholescale systemic reform” approach through grassroots organizing, teacher activism, media engagement, and waves of protests and walkouts.
We ask, What role do grassroots organizations play in responding to state takeover? Focusing on Community Voices for Public Education (CVPE), a multiracial organization founded in 2012 that “unites parents, educators, students, and community members of all identities to advocate for strong and equitable public schools” (CVPE, 2024), we explore:
• How past education reforms and local context influence current organizing strategies,
• The roles educator-activists play in bridging multi-institutional coalitions for public education, and
• How grassroots organizations build regional solidarity under takeover and amid enduring segregation.
This case study utilizes hundreds of hours of participant observations in CVPE organizing meetings, protest events, and school board meetings, as well as semi-structured interviews with educators, families, and community members. Additionally, a member of our research team is a co-founder of CVPE, and we draw on her insights as a veteran HISD education activist. We aspire to practice anti-racist scholar activism, which is “fundamentally shaped by a commitment to communities of resistance” (Joseph-Salisbury & Connelly, 2021, 57, italics in original), as well as a politically engaged ethnography that situates education policy implementation within broader sociopolitical contexts (Gutierrez & Lipman, 2016; Lipman, 2005). As such, we construct meaning from data with our participant-collaborators. This includes collaborative data analysis and presentations with CVPE members for the purposes of documenting resistance and informing future organizing strategies.
We draw on Warren and Mapp’s (2011) concept of transformational change in community organizing, which argues that organizing groups build power and sustain change by remaining rooted in community history and by transforming institutions, individuals, and communities (see Figure 1). Examining CVPE’s organizing strategies at the community, individual, and institutional level, we analyze how it has built, managed, and maintained solidarity among diverse groups of actors amid the uncertainty of takeover.
Our analysis reveals three findings. First, CVPE’s genesis during an earlier era of neoliberal reform laid the foundations for its relational and organizational infrastructure and preserved the institutional knowledge often lost in urban districts plagued by administrative turnover and the churn of reform. Second, CVPE developed educators and parents as organic leaders, tapping into their insider expertise and nurturing their activist capacities. Third, because the takeover positioned the state as a “common enemy,” CVPE played a role in redrawing boundaries of solidarity, capturing the momentum of individual mobilization within a larger coalition, though lines of difference continue to challenge CVPE’s maintenance and growth.

Authors

• Daniel Dawer, University of Texas at Austin

• Jasmin Lee, Rice University

• Ruth Kravetz, Community Voices for Public Education