This annual report provides information for the 2015-16 school year on grade-level retention and student performance in the Texas public school system. Student retention and promotion data are reported with data on the performance of students in Grades 3-8 on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading and mathematics…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) prepares an annual report on graduates and dropouts in Texas public secondary schools. This report includes state summaries of the annual dropout rate, longitudinal graduation and dropout rates, and state attrition rates. In addition to statewide statistics, the report provides historical information about dropout…

House Bill (HB) 2237 (80th Legislature), Section 6: Adolescent Reading Assessment requires districts and public charter schools to administer the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (TMSFA) or some other state approved alternative assessment to students in grade seven who do not demonstrate reading proficiency on the grade six state reading…

Inference skill is one of the most important predictors of reading comprehension. Still, there is little rigorous research investigating the effects of inference instruction on reading comprehension. There is no research investigating the effects of inference instruction on reading comprehension for English learners with reading comprehension…

This quantitative study examined seventh-grade reading scores to determine the extent to which certain demographic variables (race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status) explain and MAP reading scores predict reading scores on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in a selected northeast Texas public school. Standardized…

The Kauffman School is a public, tuition-free charter school serving Kansas City students. In the 2019-20 school year, the school enrolled 1,186 students in grades 5 through 12. Most (88 percent) of the students were low income, and 89 percent were Black or Hispanic. To measure the impact of the Kauffman School on its students, the authors…

MathForward is a program that provides teacher professional development and integrates the use of technology as a tool in the classroom. The present study examined students' mathematics growth from 2012 to 2013 and observed how students' mathematics scores changed after their school implemented the MathForward program. The sample consisted of two…

African American and Hispanic students receive more punitive school discipline than White students even when students of color commit similar infractions as Whites. Similarly, students with a disability status are more likely to experience harsher discipline in schools compared to their counterparts without a disability label. This study examines…

In "The No Significant Differences Phenomenon," Russell (1999) discusses a thought-provoking pattern of research findings regarding integrating educational technology into classroom instruction that started in 1928 and continues today. Finding few studies that resulted in measurable positive effects, Russell concluded that using…

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to examine the extent to which differences were present in discipline consequence assignments by the ethnicity/race and economic status for Grade 6, 7, and 8 girls in Texas. In the first investigation, the degree to which discipline consequence assignments differed by the ethnicity/race…

Extracurricular activity participation has been associated with a multitude of positive outcomes, including school completion, and research suggests that students at risk for school failure are particularly likely to benefit from participation. However, before extracurricular activity participation can be promoted to address such issues,…

This study investigates how much the geographic shapes of school attendance zones contributes to their levels of income segregation while holding constant levels of income segregation across residential areas. Income segregation across attendance zones is measured with the rank ordered information theory index. Income segregation across…

This annual report provides information for the 2013-14 school year on grade-level retention and student performance in the Texas public school system. Student retention and promotion data are reported with data on the performance of students in Grades 3-8 on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading and mathematics…

This annual report provides information for the 2014-15 school year on grade-level retention and student performance in the Texas public school system. Student retention and promotion data are reported with data on the performance of students in Grades 3-8 on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading and mathematics…

This executive summary highlights findings from the full report (published separately) which analyzes construct and predictive validity of a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Competency Survey. Students' SEL skill ratings were correlated with other measures of SEL skills and other outcomes of interest. A separate research brief also was…