Twelve years remain in the "60x30TX" higher education plan for Texas. The overarching goal of the plan is for 60 percent of young adult Texans, ages 25-34, to have a certificate or degree by 2030. This is the third "60x30TX" progress report issued by the THECB. It provides breakouts and explanations of the "60x30TX"…

The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) evaluation was designed with two overlapping and interacting components: (1) a study of the initiative's implementation in the participating high schools; and (2) a study of its impact on student experiences and other outcomes. As the document of record evaluating an important, large-scale initiative, this…

Diverse learners' self-efficacy learning experience in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is an area of research that needs further analysis. This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study aimed to respond to that need and concentrates on the experience of adult Hispanic learners. Self-efficacy theory provided the lens to explore the…

With a qualitative approach drawing from four focus groups, this study explored what aspects of preschool are valued most by 30 low-income Latino/a immigrant parents with children enrolled in a state-funded preschool program in Texas. Beyond the push and pull factors of necessity, convenience, and supply, parents reported valuing the…

This brief tells the story of Lumina Foundation's and states' efforts to promote an equity agenda for higher education, featuring the 2015 Equity Policy Academy-- which focused on improving educational equity for students from historically underserved groups--as a turning point. Based primarily on interviews with Lumina staff and key state leaders…

The focus of this basic qualitative research was to gain insight into the experiences of first-generation Hispanic students (FGHS) and faculty mentors to explore in what ways, if any, a faculty-student mentoring program at a four-year university was meeting the needs of FGHS. Reasons for early student departure served as the foundation for this…

Are equal educational opportunities sufficient to narrow long-standing economic and racial inequalities in achievement? In this paper, I test the hypothesis that poor and minority students benefit less from effective elementary school teachers than their non-poor and White peers, thus exacerbating inequalities. I use administrative data from…

This qualitative research study was focused on equitable access that promotes a more balanced distribution of highly effective teachers across school systems, particularly in those settings where there are higher concentrations of underserved student populations. Research has shown the lowest poverty students were twice as likely to have access to…

Background: Developmental education (DE) has been critiqued because of its high cost, the inconclusive evidence as to its effectiveness, and the overrepresentation of underrepresented minority students required to take it. Because Black and Hispanic students are more often referred to developmental courses and may require more levels of…

Since school age ELs are the fastest growing population, it is even more critical that ELs not only graduate high school, but graduate college and career ready. Many EL graduates are not completing their high school education as postsecondary ready. Although the Latino population was the largest group of ELs, representing 77.1 percent of all EL…

New York City is the nation's largest school system. Once again racial integration of schools in New York has become a hot button issue. It appears that much work needs to be done before enacted changes to middle school admissions policies in two city districts can refer to the present time period as the dawn of a new age of racial justice. Mayor…

Of all students who started college in fall 2016, 73.9 percent persisted at any U.S. institution in fall 2017, while 61.6 percent were retained at their starting institution. The persistence rate is the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year, while the retention rate is the percentage of students who…

This doctoral dissertation studied the various factors that influence the success of first generation, low income, Latino, community college students in transferring to four-year colleges and universities. The participants in this study were eight first-generation, low-income Latino male, EOPS community college students. This qualitative inquiry…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. The topics for this report on national and state-level high school graduation rates for English learners include: (1) National High School Graduation Rates, by Race and Ethnicity: SY 2015-16; (2)…

Latinas are significantly underrepresented in doctoral programs in U.S. higher education institutions. While pursuing doctoral studies is a challenging experience for anyone, Latina doctoral students are particularly burdened with additional stressors in an academic environment that does not support Latina/o cultural values, such as…