New Public Management and District Reform Managerialism and Deflection of Local Leadership in a Texas School District

Examining work and community relations in one Texas school district, this study explores intensifying managerialism under performance accountability (PA) pressures. Reports, press releases, and media accounts are combined with ethnographic study from one elementary school to explore the enactment of school district reforms. Locating PA within a broader public sector reform approach termed New Public Management (NPM), the article looks at the influence of accountability relations informed by these logics on work and community relations. In contrast to rhetorical promises of improved responsiveness to client concerns, the findings suggest more centralized decision making and control as district administrators respond to state targets. Implications for reform logics that invoke and reinforce an antidemocratic managerialism are discussed in light managerial practice that deflect community activism and discipline teacher work.