Teachers are the most important in-school factor that affect student learning. Yet many schools, particularly low-income urban schools, have a difficult time hiring and retaining teachers. When multiple teachers leave a school each year, multiple years in a row, those schools lose not only human capital, but teachers lose the strong social ties…

The purpose of this slide deck is to shine a spotlight on education in the American South with a focus on equity and to provide an understanding of the historical, social, political, and economic context in which the education sector operates. Any movement serious about improving education and life outcomes for underserved student groups --…

The Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG) offers critical support to schools, students, and borrowers at every stage of the federal student aid process--from providing information on how to pay for a higher education, including financial aid options, to facilitating successful loan repayment after graduation. As part of that support, this…

Adapting campuses, classes, and processes to better serve Hispanic students will be a crucial step toward meeting national attainment goals. Since fall 2000, the number of Hispanic students in public colleges has effectively doubled. However, due to a Congressional ban on a student-level data system, the federal government is flying blind when it…

This paper takes a critical conceptual look at education policy and practice from the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 to the present. The paper examines the roots of current United States educational policies, and shows that, in some cases, well-intentioned efforts have had a negative impact on vulnerable populations…

The demography of public school enrollment continues to change dramatically, with students of color comprising an increasing proportion of the whole. As such, suburbia, with both White and non-White students, is a place in which integration is more possible in the beginning of the 21st century. Due to the intertwined nature of how these factors…

In this investigation, relationships between teacher ethnicity and student ethnicity in Texas public middle schools were examined. Through the Texas Education Agency Academic Excellence Indicator System, publicly available data on all public middle schools in Texas for the 1999-2000 through 2009-2010 school years were downloaded. Statistically…

This article discusses the impact of changing student demographics on financing education and on our national wellbeing. We begin by examining the research of current student demographics and their relationship to learning and education costs. We then calculate a 1% cost factor from the average per-pupil expenditure based on the 2011 "Digest…

This study examined the extent to which Texas school boards of education made efforts to locally modify student speech policy. Using online policy manuals provided by the Texas Association of School Boards, speech policies for 91 school districts were gathered using a purposive stratified sampling procedure and examined for local modifications to…

This timely book examines issues pertaining to equal opportunity--affirmative action, challenges to it, and alternatives for improving opportunities for underrepresented groups--in higher education today. Its starting point is California's Proposition 209, which ended race-based affirmative action in public education and the workplace in 1996. The…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled school leaders, statewide assessments of 784 Texas public school administrators were compared to determine how leadership skills varied by type of campus (urban, suburban and rural) and by campus student achievement ratings. Important findings indicate differences exist by campus type and by…

In this study, the researchers examined current challenges faced by 46 public school superintendents in South Texas. Challenges faced by these superintendents which were investigated in this study were: political obstacles/governance; high stakes testing; curriculum and instruction; funding; student socioeconomic status; student demographics;…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled urban school leaders, statewide assessments of 248 urban Texas public school administrators were analyzed to determine principal confidence levels in leadership skill domains identified by the National Policy Board of Educational Administration (NPBEA). Important findings indicate differences…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled rural school leaders, statewide assessments of 259 rural Texas public school administrators were analyzed to determine principal confidence levels in leadership skill domains identified by the National Policy Board of Educational Administration (NPBEA). Important findings indicate differences…

Much has been written about the importance of school leadership, but there is surprisingly little systematic evidence on this topic. This paper presents preliminary estimates of key elements of the market for school principals, employing rich panel data on principals from Texas State. The consideration of teacher movements across schools suggests…