Tonya McBride-Montgomery
A long wooden cafeteria table holding twenty-eight empty white school lunch trays in neat rows, with a single tray painted Alverno red in the center, photographed at dusk.
Field Note · 2026 · Houston, TX
04Chapter Four

Dissertation Background

The problem, the purpose, and the questions that shape this inquiry.

I · The Problem

A B-rated district, taken.

The central problem is the Texas Education Agency has taken over the largest school district in Texas. The corrective action occurred as a result of an investigation into a scandal-plagued school board and its "failure of governance," as well as the district's inability to improve chronically low academic performance at one high school in the district located in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood in the city's historic Fifth Ward.

Houston ISD comprises over 275 schools and more than 200,000 students. Houston ISD was a B-rated district, and the high school had improved before the takeover was executed. One sub-problem is the newly appointed superintendent, who, under a wholesale takeover, chose 28 schools to sanction for reconstruction called the New Education Schools (NES). Secondly, the political aspects gave the Republican party all three branches of governance with the elected school board's takeover. Sweeping changes are being made with no accountability on the state's part. The students, teachers, and community are left with no voice.

II · The Purpose

A qualitative inquiry.

This qualitative research aims to analyze the perceived motivations and impact of wholescale takeover and reconstitution on a large urban school district in Texas. I will use interviews and documents to illuminate stakeholders' perceptions of the takeover and its effects on the educational equity of our marginalized scholars from low-income communities.

I hope to find out if this was indeed done to improve student achievement or if this was an overreach of the state.
III · The Questions

Three lines of inquiry.

  1. 01

    What are the stakeholders' perspectives of a wholescale district takeover on educational equity in a large urban school district?

  2. 02

    What are the effects of politics in a state takeover of a large urban school district?

  3. 03

    What are the similarities and differences when comparing the political motivations and impacts of Houston ISD with 4 large urban school districts with wholescale takeover experience?