This study examined the effect of dual enrollment (DE) on college enrollment and degree completion for students with lower prior academic achievement who attended public high schools in Texas. We employed a propensity score matching method to reduce selection bias arising from DE participation and supplemented the analysis with a bounds test. The…

Although the Texas economy is racing ahead at full speed, state K-12 education has stalled. One major obstacle has been the claim by opponents of school choice in Texas that giving families more education options via education choice policies would harm or even destroy rural district schools. These concerns, even if understandable, are not based…

The expansion of Advanced Placement (AP) programs to include students from underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities and those from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds has made it crucial to assess how effective AP courses and exams are for these groups. As AP programs become more popular, more high school students--especially freshmen…

This study was an autoethnography of the turnaround efforts of a Chicano leader in four low-performing schools in Texas. The U.S. Government and the State of Texas both impose sanctions on schools that fail to meet minimum standards on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams. The focus in the research was on how life…

This study examines the certification pathway of science teachers in Texas, how science teacher certification patterns have changed over time, and the association of certification pathway to student outcomes in science. This quantitative study uses administrative data from the Texas Statewide Longitudinal Data System (UH-ERC). The UH-ERC database…

In a West Texas oilfield school district of 33,000 students, many freshmen high school students continue to fail their English standardized test, the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness English I End of Course exam (STAAR EOC), at astounding rates. One cause of this unfortunate trend is that students choose not to bolster their reading…

The problem addressed in this study was low student achievement among students from underrepresented student groups. In this quasi-experimental research study, the self-efficacy theory was utilized to examine the relationship between teachers' receipt of instructional coaching and student achievement scores. The purpose of this quasi-experiment…

Billions of dollars have been injected to reform turnaround schools over the past decades with minimal tangible positive outcomes related to improving student achievement, if any. In this qualitative study, we investigated how using longitudinal external root cause analyses (RCAs) contributed to enhancing leadership instructional practices in thee…

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between learned helplessness and academic baseline levels among adult students who dropped out of high school and have returned to a high school equivalency program to prepare to take the GED examination. The study controlled for the variables of the age of…

The intent of this annual report is to shine light on the Texas Education Agency's strategic plan to ensure every student in Texas is prepared for success in college, a career or the military, and that by 2030 at least 60% of Texans will have a degree, certificate, or other postsecondary credential of value as part of Building a Talent Strong…

The intent of this annual report is to shine light on the Texas Education Agency's commitment to ensuring that every one of the more than five million public school students in Texas is prepared for success in college, a career or the military. The achievements of Texas students are a testament to the hard work of educators across the state. Their…

During the past year, Texas students, families, and educators have shown tremendous grit and determination as they continue to emerge from the effects of the pandemic. While much work remains in mathematics, results from the last school year show that Texas students have largely reached pre-pandemic levels of proficiency in literacy, and Texas…

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial differences in opportunities without strong evidence of efficacy. In fact, little is known about the…

Military-connected students experience behavioral, emotional, and academic concerns during their parents' deployments to other states or countries for training or defense of the United States of America. These military deployment cycles affect students with disabilities who struggle to learn at the same rate as their peers. The problem addressed…

Each year, over a thousand public schools in the US close due to declining enrollments and chronic low performance, displacing hundreds of thousands of students. Using Texas administrative data and empirical strategies that use within-student across-time and within-school across-cohort variation, I explore the impact of school closures on…