Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to examine the extent to which differences were present by student demographic characteristic in the reading achievement of Texas Grade 3 students. In the first article, the extent to which the economic status (i.e., Poor, Not Poor) of Grade 3 underrepresented boys in Texas is related to…

Using critical discourse analysis, this study assesses reader comments to newspaper articles on the "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin" Supreme Court case. The Fisher case challenges the consideration of race in the college admissions process at UT. Findings show that this racial equity practice was framed as being antithetical to…

This executive summary highlights research findings on outcomes in education, employment, and income in the southern United States region. Findings include: (1) As a whole, Southern schools, colleges, and universities perform better than ever, though they are in constant need of improvement to meet the demands of both democracy and a changing…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the ethnic representation of full-time faculty and the ethnic membership of the student body at 4-year universities in Texas. A second purpose was to ascertain the relationship of faculty diversity to student diversity with respect to student academic success. This descriptive analysis will…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine advanced coursework completion rates, Advanced Placement (AP)/International Baccalaureate (IB) testing rates, AP/IB exam passage rates, and the percentage of AP/IB exam scores at or above the criterion that may exist among Texas public high school students from 2001 to 2012 to ascertain (a) the…

This report provides information about the performance of Texas' 2016 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2016. Beginning with the Graduating Class of 2013, all students whose scores are college reportable, both standard and…

No Child Left Behind's mandated high-stakes testing and accountability policies have pervaded districts and schools nationwide. To examine student progress and graduation in the midst of first generation Texas-style accountability, this study tracked individuals in a longitudinal dataset of over 45,000 high school students in the Houston…

This Statistics in Brief describes the undergraduate experiences of students who immigrated to the United States or who had at least one immigrant parent (second-generation Americans). The analysis compares these two groups with all undergraduates (excluding foreign students) and with third-or higher generation American undergraduates whose…

In Texas, fifth grade students are required to pass both the reading and math sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The purpose of this study is to describe parents' perceptions of the influence of the high-stakes TAKS test on the family lives of at-risk fifth grade…

This qualitative study investigated five elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of, and attributions about the school performance of Asian American students. Using naturalistic inquiry, data were obtained through interviews, classroom observations, document reviews and field notes; and were analyzed using grounded theory techniques. The…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Texas for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Texas showed across-the-board gains--improvements in reading and math at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low-income students, and…

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina displaced the largest number of public school children ever affected by any disaster. Approximately 370,000 children, including 15,000 Latino/Hispanic children from Louisiana, were scattered throughout the 48 U.S. states (Landrieu, 2010; Louisiana Department of Education, 2004). Although much of the media…

Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

This report provides information about the performance of Texas' 2012 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2012 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in the…

This report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents results from the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in mathematics. Representative samples of between 1,800 and 4,300 fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 18 urban districts participated in the 2009 assessment. Eleven of the districts also…