The purpose of this study was to explore how district funding for 4 years of PSAT administrations for all students in Grades 8-11 impacted Hispanic students at a North Texas school district. Using college admissions data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), the researcher examined overall district-wide college admissions percentages for…

International assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have exhibited United States students specifically in the fourth and eighth grades, are not performing well when compared to their international peers. Educational stakeholders including…

Although many national studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of magnet programs, there is limited research involving math, science, and technology magnet schools and their influence on student academic performance, especially at the middle school level. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a statistical difference existed…

The 1997 Nebraska Legislature enacted Bill 806 to promote school consolidation, which legislators believed would lead schools to become more cost-efficient and provide a significantly larger curriculum. This legislative action begged the question: Has the move to consolidate schools made Nebraska schools more efficient while providing greater…

In this dissertation, I address the issue of social inequalities in education and the role of the education system in confronting them. The project involves two main parts, one empirical and the other conceptual. In the first part--chapters 1 and 2--I address the practical dimension of how to reduce social inequalities in education by exploring…