“You Don’t Get to Tell Us We’re Not Experiencing This!”: Living Through Takeover in Houston ISD

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 21: K-12 Policies and Politics

Abstract

In March 2023, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced it would take over the Houston Independent School District (HISD), replacing the geographically representative elected school board with an at-large state-appointed Board of Managers and superintendent. Since the 2023-2024 school year until now, HISD has undergone a host of changes that the state-appointed leaders describe as “wholescale, systemic reform,” prompting some to call the HISD takeover “America’s biggest education experiment.” From an educational policy perspective, takeovers represent one potential intervention to address academic underperformance by targeting low-achieving schools and districts. However, prior empirical studies have shown how takeovers do not significantly improve student achievement, disproportionately curtail the political power of racially minoritized communities, and generate political contention. Though takeovers are becoming an increasingly common policy tool within education reform, little is known about how this fundamental change in governance structures translates to everyday practices within schools. This paper draws on data from 80 in-depth interviews with HISD families and educators to center the lived experiences of the stakeholders most impacted by the takeover. I find that these actors are far from passive policy recipients, instead exercising agency when implementing, challenging, and subverting mandates from state-appointed leadership in ways that could lead to divergences in policy intentions vs. policies in practice. These findings deepen sociological insight into the multilevel dynamics inherent in top-down education reform initiatives like takeovers, especially in an era where education institutions are increasingly governed by actors beyond the traditional local school board.

Author

• Jasmin (Jee Sun) Lee, Rice University