Drawn from interviews with thirteen displaced stakeholders of the Houston Independent School District.
My research interviewed 13 displaced stakeholders from the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Their voices, taken together, answer three core questions and reveal three governing logics behind the takeover.
What were stakeholders' lived experiences of state takeover in HISD?
Loss of autonomy, emotional strain, loss of joy, deprofessionalization.
What are stakeholders' perceptions of the governance and reforms?
Disenfranchisement, deception, and harm to students, curriculum, staff, and schools.
What recommendations do stakeholders have for the future of state takeovers?
Restoration of local democratic control, equitable reforms, and a reinvestment in veteran educators and resources that meet the needs of the students.
Market logic and privatization.
Takeover policies favored data manipulation, merit pay, and test scores over authentic learning. The takeover served as a gateway to privatization benefitting charter operators, consultants, and the politically connected. There was an exodus of qualified teachers and an influx of apprentices and uncertified staff.
Control, surveillance, punishment & deprofessionalization.
The culture changed from autonomy to scripted and timed instruction and punitive evaluation systems. Top-down governance produced fear, panic attacks, burnout, emotional exhaustion, health decline, and attrition.
Race, power & structural inequity.
Takeover disproportionately harmed Black and Brown educators and students.