Texas Education Research Articles

Racial Threat and White Opposition to Bilingual Education in Texas

This study examines local contextual conditions that influence opposition to bilingual education among non-Hispanic Whites, net of individual-level characteristics. Data from the Texas Poll ( N = 615) are used in conjunction with U.S. Census data to test five competing hypotheses using binomial and multinomial logistic regression models. Our results support a “racial threat” hypothesis, suggesting that increasing opposition to bilingual education among Whites corresponds to changes in the Hispanic population. We find opposition to bilingual education among non-Hispanic Whites to be most pronounced in areas with substantial growth in an already sizeable Hispanic population, and least pronounced in areas of high growth rates and historically low proportions of Hispanics. Importantly, our results highlight the relevance of the interaction between minority group size and minority growth rates in generating majority opposition to bilingual education programs in the United States.

Lone star tarnished: a critical look at Texas politics and public policy

Part I: The Great State of Texas? 1. The Texas Way 2. Texas: The Myth vs. The Reality 3. Demographic Change and Its Implications Part II: The Reality Thus Far 4. Jobs, Income, and Wealth in Texas 5. Public Education in Texas 6. Health and Human Services in Texas 7. Crime and Punishment in Texas 8. Good Roads, Highways, and Transportation in Texas 9. Energy and the Environment in Texas Part III: The Coming Reality 10. The Way Forward

MAY 2012 PLACEMENT ADS

MAY 2012 PLACEMENT ADS

‘Everything Before This Was Just a Job’

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderIn the Limelight1 Apr 2012‘Everything Before This Was Just a Job’ Kellie Rowden-Racette Kellie Rowden-Racette Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.LML.17052012.38 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In A young Karla Cox celebrates her birthday with her father. Name: Karla Cox, CCC-SLP Title: Speech-language pathologist, Cleburne Independent School District and Ridgeview Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing, Cleburne, Texas Hometown: Cleburne, Texas You could never say that Karla Cox haphazardly stumbled into speech-language pathology. Ten years ago, at age 40, she fought her way into the field and today is here with a purpose. This school-based speech-language pathologist not only works full-time in the Cleburne Independent School District in Texas, serving as the district’s early intervention coordinator as well as overseeing the district’s assistive technology program, but she also works part-time in a rehabilitation facility with patients recovering from stroke. This schedule may seem jam-packed, but Cox welcomes the ability to help such diverse populations. “I just love it,” she says. “After all my experiences, being an SLP is the perfect job for me. I am an up-and-moving, take-charge kind of person. In the speech world, there is always something new and challenging waiting just around the corner.” And all of her experiences were crucial to her finding her niche. A native of Burleson, Texas, Cox is the youngest in her family of five kids and had a boisterous habit of yelling and screaming a lot. So much, in fact, that in third grade she was referred to speech-language treatment not only for a lisp but also for nodules on her vocal folds. It was her first encounter with an SLP, whom she considered her “speech teacher.” As an adult, Cox put in long hours working in the retail world at Radio Shack. She showed a knack for computers and technology and was 10 years into her tenure when Radio Shack offered to pay for college if she were to pursue a computer programming degree. In 2001 she enrolled in some basic classes at her local community college. In her third semester, her father suffered a stroke. He had just come home from work and was in his car in the driveway when it happened. He called Cox and told her he couldn’t move. She called 911 and met him at the hospital. He was completely paralyzed on the left side and, although cognitively intact, needed a lot of support and rehabilitation. “It broke my heart to see him like that,” she recalls. “It was so scary.” But out of a grim situation came a bright spot. During her father’s rehabilitation, Cox had the opportunity to observe the SLP working with him. Until this time she thought SLPs were only “speech teachers” and hadn’t realized there were SLPs in the medical field, too. And then she had an idea. “At one point I had wanted to go into the medical field, but didn’t,” she says. “I thought, ‘I could really do this. I could help people like my dad.’ “ After finishing her associate’s degree, Cox applied to Texas Christian University, worked full-time, and endured two years on campus as a 40-something student in a sea of 20-somethings, and ultimately received her bachelor’s degree, graduating in 2005 alongside her daughter. After admittedly panicking a bit when she realized she would need her master’s degree to become a licensed SLP, she enrolled in the Texas Education Telecommunication Network program through Texas Woman’s University and worked as a school-based SLP assistant while going to school and earning her clinical hours. She graduated in 2008, the same year her son graduated from high school. Cox’s father passed away in 2004 from aspiration pneumonia. Although she was devastated to lose him, his experience stayed with her and motivated her through the relentless work and school schedule she had to keep. And even though she reached her goal and is now a fully licensed and experienced SLP, she hasn’t slowed down. “In a way I’m surprised,” she says. “I’d been with Radio Shack for more than 10 years, and I’m really a long-term person, so for me to make this kind of a change at my age was so unlike me. But, really, I had found my passion in speech-language pathology. Everything before this was just a job.” Contact Karla Cox, MS, CCC-SLP, at [email protected]. Author Notes Kellie Rowden-Racette, print and online editor for The ASHA Leader, can be reached at [email protected]. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 17Issue 5April 2012 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Apr 1, 2012 Metrics Downloaded 59 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2012 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

Impact Of School Reform On Dropout Rates And Test Scores In An Urban High School

The primary focus of the study was to explore the effect of School Within a School reform on two components in the Adequate Yearly Progress Report by which Texas schools are measured - dropout rates and scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. The demographics of the particular study sample included 11th grade students considered economically disadvantaged, English language learners, and regular, as well as special education students, attending an urban Texas high school. Data were acquired from the Texas Education Agency and hypotheses were tested with a non-parametric test of statistical significance, chi-square. Results indicated that the reform made a positive impact on dropout rates and on math and English Language Arts scores.

Ethnic Differences Among Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors at Texas 4-Year Universities

Examined in this study was the change in Black and Hispanic faculty employment at the Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor levels at 4-year universities (n = 36/39 universities) in Texas for the years 2003 and 2009. The number and percent of Black and Hispanic faculty members increased at all three levels of employment between the years 2003 and 2009. Although statistically significant increases were present at all levels except for Black Full Professors, the effect sizes reflected trivial increases. The rapid ethnic diversification of the student population at institutions of higher education in Texas has not been mirrored in its faculty.

College-Readiness Rates in Texas

In this study, we examined the college-readiness rates of Black, Hispanic, and White Texas public high school graduates using archival data from the Texas Education Agency Academic Excellence Indicator System. An examination of the state college-readiness rates across a 3-year period was conducted to determine the extent to which academic achievement gaps had increased, decreased, or remained relatively large and stable among Black, Hispanic, and White high school graduates in Texas. For the 3 years of data, college-readiness rates of White students were higher than the college-readiness rates of Black and Hispanic students in reading, math, and both subjects by large margins. Of the 27 statistical analyses of college readiness, statistically significant findings were present, revealing 19 large effect sizes, one near-large effect size, one moderate effect size, and six small effect sizes. Although Black and Hispanic students increased their college-readiness rates, White students also increased their college-readiness rates in reading, math, and both subjects to maintain the status quo for student academic achievement.

Texas: A Historical Atlas (review)

Reviewed by: Texas: A Historical Atlas Gerald D. Saxon Texas: A Historical Atlas. By A. Ray Stephens, cartography by Carol Zuber-Mallison. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. Pp. 432. Color illustrations and maps, charts, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780806138732, $39.95 cloth.) Retired University of North Texas history professor A. Ray Stephens has done everyone with an interest in Texas a service with the publication of this beautiful and useful book Texas: A Historical Atlas. The atlas is a major rewriting and rethinking of his important work published twenty years ago titled Historical Atlas of Texas. The new atlas is divided into three sections, Natural Texas, The Texans, and Modern Texas, and includes eighty entries with one hundred and seventy-five newly designed maps—more than twice the number in the original volume. The atlas has more than 400 pages, is in color, and measures 9 ½ by 12 ½ inches. The maps, created by Carol Zuber-Mallison, a freelance artist who specializes in maps and graphics and has worked for newspapers in North Texas and the Texas Almanac, are large and easy for readers to use. The importance of the book derives from its wealth of historical and geographical information that Stephens packs in. He essentially takes the reader on a textual and visual-cartographic history of Texas, starting with the natural environment (e.g., soil, vegetation, surface and underground water, weather and climate), followed by the human experience and its impact on the region (e.g., Native American, Spanish, French, Mexican, Anglo American), and ending with human and economic themes prevalent in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Texas (e.g., oil and gas discovery, agriculture, higher education, population growth, defense installations, tourism, political districts). Complementing the entries are twenty-two charts and diagrams and seventy-one tables, making this not only an indispensable reference work but also a comprehensive history of the state in its own right. The book is divided fairly evenly between pre-1900 and post-1900 Texas, a welcome characteristic for those of us as interested in contemporary Texas as in its revolutionary past. Quibbles can always be made regarding what was included in an atlas and what was not. For example, Stephens discusses railroads and their history in entry 62 but the accompanying map only shows the location of railroads in 2005—a shortcoming in my opinion, especially considering the importance of railroad growth to the development of the state. In entry 74, Colleges and Universities, Stephens traces the history of higher education in Texas, including a map showing the location of institutions of higher learning in the state. I would also like to see a discussion and cartographic representation of educational levels achieved by Texans, since the state lags behind most in the general educational levels of its citizens. Another quibble is the book’s failure to treat illegal immigration, other than a passing mention in entry 82, Hispanic Texans. [End Page 79] All quibbles aside, Texas: A Historical Atlas is an invaluable resource for individuals who teach and research Texas history and for anyone with even a passing interest in the Lone Star State. Stephens and Zuber-Mallison have produced a book that is both attractive and useful. Kudos to both of them and to the University of Oklahoma Press for bringing it to market at a reasonable $39.95. The press should also consider providing access to the maps, tables, and charts in digital format for use in the classroom. This would extend the usefulness of the atlas even more. Gerald D. Saxon University of Texas at Arlington Copyright © 2011 The Texas State Historical Association

A Comparative Analysis Of Audit Service Supply Using Desk And Working Paper Reviews

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Texas Education Agency (TEA) performs extensive reviews of audit working papers for selected Texas school district audits to evaluate the quality of audit services rendered by independent accountants. These reviews are referred to as Quality Control Reviews (QCRs). The TEA also conducts desk reviews of all audited financial statements issued by Texas independent school districts. During the desk review process, the TEA performs a limited check of the accuracy of financial statement amounts, completeness of financial disclosures, and existence of proper audit output. Prior research suggests that desk reviews and quality control reviews both measure audit quality (Colbert and O’Keefe 1995; Copley et al. 1994; Deis and Giroux 1992, 1996; Giroux et al. 1995; O’Keefe and Westort 1992; O’Keefe et al. 1994). The purpose of the paper is to determine if desk reviews capture the same audit quality information as quality control reviews. If so, regulators should focus resources on desk reviews since they are more timely and economical than QCRs. The results of the study, however, indicate that desk reviews and quality control reviews do not measure the same constructs. The findings suggest that desk reviews measure the industry specific knowledge of the auditor, which is only one aspect of audit quality. Moreover, it was observed that some audits passing the desk review were graded low in quality by the working paper review. This finding suggests that low audit quality may be more prevalent than generally suspected and that steps to improve audit quality and auditor credibility are warranted.<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong></span></span></p>

Do Principal Preparation Programs Influence Student Achievement Through the Building of Teacher-Team Qualifications by the Principal? An Exploratory Analysis

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to explore how the characteristics of the principal preparation programs of newly hired elementary school principals might influence school achievement through the development of well-qualified teams of teachers by the school. Of primary interest is whether elementary school principals from preparation programs with certain types of characteristics are more or less likely to build teams of well-qualified teachers who, in turn, positively affect overall student achievement. A secondary purpose is to establish a relationship between the overall school-level qualifications of teams of teachers and school-level student achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) to underscore the importance of the first relationship. Research Design: This quantitative study utilizes ordinary least squares regression to analyze seven extracts of data from the Texas Education Agency, merged together to create a data set that matched teachers, principals, school characteristics, and student achievement to individual schools. First, the authors establish the relationship between school-level teacher-team quality and school-level student outcomes on the TAKS. Second, they examine the relationship between principal preparation program characteristics and the measures of teacher-team quality after controlling for principal characteristics, school characteristics, and student achievement. Furthermore, because the authors hypothesize that principals cannot quickly alter the quality of teams of teachers in schools, they examine school achievement and teacher-team quality over four years.

The Relationship Between Residential Land Use Patterns and the Educational Outcomes of Economically Disadvantaged Students in Texas

Disparate outcomes resulting from economic segregation in public primary schools have been the subject of much debate and litigation. Little research, however, examines whether negative outcomes may be exacerbated by inequities in the distribution of housing across metropolitan areas. This article explores connections between residential land use patterns and educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged students in Texas’s four largest metropolitan areas. Analysis of Texas Education Agency data finds that economically disadvantaged students in schools with low levels of such students perform better on standardized tests. Metropolitan school districts exhibit moderate levels of economic segregation, following patterns similar to the underlying housing market.

Symposium Report on Aligning Texas Four-by-Four High School Curricula and First-Year College Courses

This report describes two symposia convened to address the process of implementing the recently published Texas College and Career Readiness Standards, which are intended to help educators aid students in bridging the gap between high school and college classroom expectations. In 2009 and 2010, these two symposia for chemistry education professionals focused on understanding what is expected of chemistry students from various high school settings (e.g., small and large schools; rural, suburban, and urban locales) in order for students to succeed in first-year college-level lecture and laboratory courses. The first symposium was attended by 45 secondary school teachers and many representatives of universities, junior colleges, technical colleges, and private colleges. This symposium began a dialogue on how graduating high school seniors could become successful first-year students in college. The goals were to begin recognizing how the new standards evolved and to acknowledge the gaps between high school and college chemistry curricula. The first symposium also discussed what it means for students to be ready for postsecondary experiences and raised awareness of developments underway in high schools, including dual-credit courses, early college programs, and how colleagues in mathematics support efforts to improve chemistry education in Texas. The second symposium, which brought together more than 120 chemistry teachers in two locations via a teleconference, continued the dialogue established in the first symposium. Mathematics colleagues were invited to join the chemistry teachers in the second symposium so that the alignment issues between the disciplines could be addressed.

Building Career and Educational Pathways through Partnerships and Education

The Texas Industry-Specific English as a Second Language (TIESL) Curricula Project was developed by the El Paso Community College under an initiative with Texas LEARNS (the management group for the Texas education agency's adult education programs across the state). It created a unique career-specific exploration curricula and opened new pathways to postsecondary education and training for Texas' English as a second language (ESL) learners.

The Status of Equity for Hispanics in Public Higher Education in Florida and Texas

This article uses descriptive analyses of data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to examine the status of equity for Hispanic students in public higher education institutions in Florida and Texas. The analyses show substantial inequities for Hispanics in enrollment, full-time faculty, and executive, administrative, and managerial staff. In both Texas and Florida, the greatest gaps in equity for Hispanics occur for full-time faculty and at the public flagship institutions.

A Qualitative Study of Junior High School Principals' and School Food Service Directors' Experiences with the Texas School Nutrition Policy

Objective The objective of this study was to learn about the experiences of principals and school food service directors with the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy. Design Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted to gain first hand reactions to the new nutrition policy. Setting Data were gathered from Texas middle schools. Participants Principals and food service directors from 24 schools randomly selected from 10 Texas Education regions were interviewed. Phenomenon of Interest Participants were interviewed about their reactions to the implementation of the Texas School Nutrition Policy. Analysis Two researchers, using thematic analysis, independently analyzed each interview. Differences in coding were reconciled and themes were generated. Results The themes that surfaced included resistance to the policy, policy development process, communication, government role, parental role, food rewards, fund raising, and leadership. Conclusions and implications Resistance to the policy was not extreme. In the future a wider array of school personnel who are affected by school food regulations should be included in the development of new policies. It is critical to communicate with all concerned parties about the policy.

Facilities maintenance management practices in large public schools, Texas

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present previous studies and reports which have shown that most school buildings in the USA suffer from inadequate physical conditions. As American school buildings become “older”, it is essential for every school district to have an effective facilities maintenance management plan of its facilities. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify and analyze how facilities maintenance is planned, managed and carried out by large public schools in the State of Texas, USA.Design/methodology/approach – Guidelines taken from the literature drove the development of a survey questionnaire, which was sent to 320 school facilities managers from four major metropolitan areas in Texas. Elementary, middle and high schools with enrollments of 750 students or more were selected from the Texas Education Agency's web site. The responses were received in a secure database established at an online web site, where participants' identities were kept confidential.Findings –...

Memories of the Branch Davidians: The Autobiography of David Koresh’s Mother by Bonnie Haldeman (review)

light the successes that the school has experienced. This volume adopts such a narrative tone throughout, but at the same time it also honestly and forthrightly analyzes the difficulties and rough spots that the university has experienced over time. It is heartening to know that those who today lead Southwestern University show great pride in the school’s historical heritage by sponsoring this publication , even to the point of offering a copy of this volume free of charge to all Southwestern University alumni. Those affiliated with the university will find much within the pages of this volume to reinforce their pride and satisfaction with the school, while those readers who are making first contact with the university by means of this volume will have a detailed exposure to the history of the school, which has played a significant role in the history of Texas education from the 1840s until the present day. Austin College Light Townsend Cummins Memories of the Branch Davidians: The Autobiography of David Koresh’s Mother. By Bonnie Haldeman, edited by Catherine Wessinger. (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2007. Pp. 214. Photographs, notes, works cited, index. ISBN 978-193279 -298-0. $24.95, paper.) Following the clash between federal agents and the Branch Davidians in 1993, a number of books have appeared from both scholarly and popular presses assessing the movement, its leader David Koresh, and the tragic unfolding of events that culminated in the death of seventy-six Branch Davidians at the end of the standoff. These works reflect a wide variety of questions and perspectives. Some are pragmatic in nature and seek to dispel biased views of so-called religious “cults” in order to avoid a repeat of the events at Waco; representative titles include Why Waco? (University of California Press, 1995) by James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher and Learning Lessons from Waco (Syracuse University Press, 2001) by Jayne Seminare Docherty. Books such as James D. Faubion’s The Shadows and Lights of Waco (Princeton University Press, 2001), on the other hand, represent more thoroughgoing ethnographies of the Branch Davidians. Other works reinforce widely held stereotypes of the Branch Davidians by depicting them as simply one more example of religiously inspired violence, as can be seen in James A. Haught’s treatment of the movement in Holy Hatred (Prometheus Books, 1995). Catherine Wessinger’s edited volume, Memories of the Branch Davidians, fits within a very different category within the literature related to Koresh and his followers—namely first-person accounts of Branch Davidian survivors. A compilation of a series of oral interviews with Bonnie Haldeman, the mother of David Koresh, Memories of the Branch Davidians reads as an autobiography of Haldeman’s life. Haldeman recounts details surrounding Koresh’s early years, his growing interest in religious matters, and finally her own observations as a surviving member of the Branch Davidian community. Whereas other first-person accounts tend to stress controversial aspects of the movement (see for example Marc Breault and Martin King’s Inside the Cult: A Member’s Chilling, Exclusive Account of 358 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page 358 Madness and Depravity in David Koresh’s Compound [Signet Books, 1993]) or emphasize the climactic events surrounding the government’s siege of the Branch Davidian compound (to a certain degree David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson’s A Place Called Waco: A Survivor’s Story [Public Affairs, 1999] follows this pattern), throughout the work Haldeman highlights ordinary aspects of Koresh’s life and of the Branch Davidian community. She describes her memories of her grandchildren, for example, as well as her memories of adherents’ mundane routines in the compound including their dietary habits and their leisure activities. The most poignant observations in the book come at the end of the autobiography when Haldeman delineates her own perspective regarding her son’s messianic claims. In addition to the autobiographical core of the book, Wessinger provides fiftyfive pages of very thorough footnotes that help the reader contextualize Haldeman’s statements, as well as an appendix containing poems by Koresh. Taken on their own, Wessinger’s footnotes function as a serviceable introduction to the major events and personalities involved in...

Differences in the Prevalence of Autism among Black, Hispanic, and White Students

While many researchers have studied the etiology of autism, possible racial/ethnic differences in prevalence of the autism diagnosis have received much less attention. Using the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data set for 2006, we examined the prevalence of an educational diagnosis of autism among Black, White, and Hispanic students. The percentage of all Texas children served under the autism label in 2006 was .43% (n=19, 813). White and Black children were more likely than Hispanic children to receive an autism educational diagnosis (.62%, .44%, and .27% respectively). The percentage of students diagnosed with autism varied by geographic area and income level, as well. Possible reasons for the disparity in prevalence of autism diagnoses are discussed.

Willie Lee Glass: A Lady of Remarkable Influence

Willie Lee Campbell Glass was a Black educator and home economist whose career spanned almost four decades from 1933 through the 1970s. As the first Black state consultant for home economics with the Texas Education Agency, Glass was a leader in the development of programs that prepared classroom teachers for desegregation. Using wit and diplomacy, she paved the way for many women and African Americans as a respected professional in the field of home economics/family and consumer sciences education. Glass focused on serving others and making young Black students feel good about themselves. Her life provides important information related to the history of the profession and a model for family and consumer sciences students, educators, and administrators.

Psychometric Properties of the Texas Primary Reading Inventory for Early Reading Screening in Kindergarten

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the kindergarten Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI; Texas Education Agency and the University of Texas System, 2004—2006) Mid-Year screeners with a sample of 180 students. The TPRI screeners were designed to determine which students are not at risk for later reading failure. Results indicated adequate internal consistency reliability and concurrent and predictive validity for screening purposes. Classification validity analyses indicated low false negative rates and high negative predictive power but substantial false positive rates and low positive predictive power. The TPRI Mid-Year screeners were found to be adequate instruments for identifying students who are unlikely in need of further assessment. Recommendations are provided for using the TPRI within a response-to-intervention or other prevention-based service delivery model.