This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2020-21 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, Emergent bilingual student/English learner, foster…

Accountability policies assume that educators will use student data to improve student learning, but data use in practice has turned out to be harder than theorized. The purpose of this article was to examine how science teachers in Grades 5 to 8 used data in their classrooms. Utilizing sensemaking theory, we found that teachers decided how to use…

The passage of Senate Bill 530 in June 2007 increased visibility about the importance of health-related fitness in Texas. As a result of the mandate, more than 2.6 million 3rd- through 12th-grade students from all Texas counties were evaluated between January 1, 2008, and June 1, 2008, using a standardized test of health-related physical fitness…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in academic achievement among students who were Hispanic, Limited English Proficient (LEP), or White, using archival data from the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS). Data examined were fifth grade reading and math passing rates from the 1993…

Districts must hire "highly qualified teachers" to implement "research-based best practices" using "data-driven decisions" to positively impact student achievement. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 has provided educators a whole new set of catch phrases. As states, districts, and educators work to define…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. In 1994, TSA was expanded to include non-public school students. The 1994 reading assessment considered students' proficiency in situations that involved…

Texas students have made extraordinarily large gains on statewide achievement tests, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), gains so dramatic that they have been dubbed the "Texas miracle." There is general agreement that these gains are attributable to the high stakes accountability system in Texas, but there is some question…

This research was undertaken to understand grade 3 students and teachers in Texas more fully and to explore the relationships between student characteristics, teaching practices, and materials in grade 3 classrooms and student performance in grade 3. Survey data was received from teachers for 7,216 students from 93 campuses and 72 districts around…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. In 1992, the NAEP Program included an expanded TSA in fourth-grade reading. The 1992 reading assessment considered students' performance in situations that…

In 1998 for the first time, the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) administered a writing assessment at the state level. This report describes the writing achievement of Texas eighth-grade students and compares their overall performance to students in the West region of the United States and the nation (using data from the NAEP…

The 1998 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) state level reading assessment measured fourth- and eighth-grade students' reading proficiency in situations that involved reading for three purposes: reading for literary experience, reading to gain information, and reading to perform a task (grade 8 only). This report describes the…

The approach taken by three Texas school districts in high poverty and high minority areas to improve standardized achievement scores is explored. The three districts implemented an instructional management program consisting of aligning the curriculum, filling the curriculum gaps, and monitoring student progress. A first step in the curriculum…

This report provides selected results from the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for Texas' public-school students at grades 4 and 8. Since 1992, reading has been assessed in four different years at the state level (at grade 4 in 1992 and 1994, and at both grades 4 and 8 in 1998 and 2002). Texas participated in all of these…

The program is primarily designed to provide bilingual education for pupils, in grades K-6, with limited English-speaking ability. Due to parental requests, approximately 16 percent monolingual English-speakers have been accepted into the program. Of the 529 children enrolled in the program, 89 percent have Spanish surnames. Objectives for the…

Student performance in grade 3 was evaluated based on instructional practices, classroom materials, and computer use in grades 1 and 3. This longitudinal study of primary education in Texas was initiated during the 1995-1996 school year when data were collected from first-grade teachers. Teachers provided information not only on teaching practices…