Graduation rates, test scores, and financial record keeping improved during the tenure as district superintendent of Carrol Thomas, from 1988 to 1996, but the district began to decline again after he left to become superintendent of the Beaumont Independent School District. In a 2006 article Todd Spivak of the "Houston Chronicle" described NFISD as "a prime example of how inconsistency can wreak havoc on schools". In the five years before 2006 NFISD had four superintendents, and the TEA had indicated financial and governance problems at NFISD. Dr. Robert Sanborn, the president and CEO of the organization Children at Risk, described the state of affairs as "inexcusable", with both district high schools posting poor state test scores considered to be poor and the lowest SAT scores in the Houston area. Also in 2006 Dan Feldstein of the "Houston Chronicle" wrote: "By many measures, North Forest ... is a troubled district. Not only is it last in Harris County in SAT scores and passing rates on the TAKS test, but it ranks among the worst in the state." In late 2006 the TEA assigned two teachers to monitor two NFISD campuses that were rated "unacceptable" by the TEA.