Narrative Building in State Education Intervention: Framing the Takeover Attempt of Houston Independent School District

Abstract

This case study uses the approach by the Texas government to attempt a state takeover of Houston Independent School District (HISD) to examine the impact of framing on awareness and acceptance of executive action. This work extends recent studies in Georgia and Massachusetts that find stakeholder relationships, the role of Republican governors, and assigning blame as key components of takeover analysis. Using framing analysis, this case study analyzes the impact that framing the takeover action and approach has on these relationships. These findings present an understanding of how narrative construction makes an executive action consistent with administrative and political power to gain acceptability.

Race to the top and the diffusion of state education intervention policy in the American states

“…There is also the move of mayors to expand their role in education past their executive power. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner is an example of this in 2018 and 2019 when he tepidly attempted to intervene in an attempted state takeover of Houston Independent School District (ISD; Lovell, 2021). He put forward a plan proposing third party intervention that was ultimately disregarded by the school board and state.…”

“…Examples of takeover policies include reorganizing a school board such as what happened in New Orleans (Bross et al, 2016; Jochim & Pillow, 2019) or refocusing a public school into a magnet school or engaging public entrepreneurs (Mintrom & Vergari, 1997). Underperformance because of failing local governance is often the expressed motivation and framing for takeovers (Henig, 2013; Lovell, 2021). Takeover policy gained prominence from the accountability efforts of the 1980s and has continued in states, mainly where Republican governors are seeking more control and due to increased ties between performance and school funding from the federal government (Burns, 2009; Morel, 2018; Welsh & Williams, 2018).…”