Disparate Impact Analyses of TAAS Scores and School Quality

Abstract

This article documents the quantitative disparity in TAAS exit-level test performance and school quality between Texas’s racial/ethnic groups. The article begins with an overview of four measures of disparate impact: (a) four-fifths rule, (b) Hazelwood rule, (c) Shoben rule, and (d) rule of practical significance. Next, the author applies these measures using Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance data (i.e., pass/fail data) collected from the Texas Education Agency to determine whether the TAAS results in a disparate impact measuring TAAS performance at different stages in the exam administration cycle (i.e., first administration, last administration, cumulative) and for different groups of students to account for the effect of various at-risk factors. The article then summarizes Texas Education Agency data on accreditation status and curricular offerings to examine whether Texas’s ethnic/racial groups share the same school quality.