Students In Texas Research Articles

Mandatory Gamified Security Awareness Training Impacts on Texas Public Middle School Students: A Qualitative Study

Aim/Purpose. The problem statement in the proposed study focuses on that, despite the growing recognition that teenagers need to undergo security awareness training, little is known about the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security awareness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behavior of students in Texas. Background. This study was guided by the research question: What are the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security aware-ness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behaviors of students in Texas? The study gathers opinions from experts on the impacts of security awareness training on students. Methodology. Our research used semi-structured interviews with twelve experts chosen through the use of purposive sampling. The population for the study consisted of experts in the fields of security awareness training for and teaching middle school-aged children. Candidates were recruited through the Cyber-Texas Foundation and snowball sampling techniques. Contribution. The research contributed to the body of knowledge by using interviews to explore the impacts of security awareness training on middle school students based on the opinions and views of the teachers and instructors who work with middle school students. Findings. The findings of this study demonstrate that middle school is an ideal time to provide cybersecurity training and will impact student behaviors by making them more conscious of cyber threats and preparing them to be more tech-savvy professionals. The research also showed that well-designed cybersecurity games with real-world application combined with traditional teaching techniques can help students develop positive habits. The research also suggests that teachers possess the skills to teach cybersecurity classes and the classes can be integrated into the current school day without the need for any significant changes to existing daily schedules. Recommendations for Practitioners. A well-design gamification-based curriculum implemented in Texas Middle Schools, combined with traditional teaching techniques and repeated over an extended time period, will impact students’ behaviors by making them more able to recognize and respond to cyber risks and will transform them into more secure and tech-savvy members of society. Recommendations for Researchers. The research shows middle school instructors and technology experts believe the implementation of a security awareness training program in middle schools is both possible and practical, while also beneficial to the students. The recommendation is to encourage researchers to explore ways to build curricula and games capable of appealing to students and implementing the instruction into school programs. Impact on Society. Demonstrating that training provided in middle school will make lasting impacts and improvements to student behaviors benefits children and their families in the short-term and workplaces in the long-term. The development of a more security-conscious workforce can reduce the significant number of data breaches and cyber attacks resulting from the poor security habits of companies’ users. Future Research. Future research that will add significant value to the body of knowledge includes testing the effectiveness of habit-shaping games to determine whether existing long-term games maintain student interest. Qualitative studies could interview parents of teenagers using habit-shaping games to determine the effectiveness of the applications. Another qualitative study could interview teachers to determine how teachers’ ages affect their comfort level teaching technology classes. Both studies could provide valuable insights into how to implement security awareness training in schools.

High School Course-Completion Trajectories and College Pathways for All: A Transcript Analysis Study on Elective Computer Science Courses

Whereas researchers regard high school math and science coursework as the best indicator of college readiness for students in the United States, computer science coursework and its relationship to college attendance, particularly for minoritized students, have not received due attention despite its root in the mathematical and scientific reasoning ability. We examined students’ high school course completion patterns across subjects and grade levels with a special focus on elective computer science courses and whether the coursework pattern transitions worked differently for minoritized students in Texas, USA. Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis revealed multiple patterns of coursework, including Regular, Trailing, and Computer Science-Intensive. However, high school students seemed to attempt computer science courses with an experimental attitude. High school girls, low-income, and Latinx and African American students were less likely to complete computer science courses, despite demonstrating a similar coursework pattern in the previous year. Similarly, students with limited English proficiency, those eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch programs, and Native American students systematically have a lower chance to attend college, despite sufficient academic preparation in high school. Findings highlight the challenges minoritized students face and how students approach elective computer science courses in high school.

33446 Demographics of melanoma knowledge among middle and high schoolers in Texas

Adolescents, an age group that can reduce sun exposure early, may benefit from school-based skin cancer education programs. Moreover, literature regarding demographics of melanoma knowledge is sparse. This study sought to evaluate melanoma knowledge among students in Texas viewing John Wayne Cancer Foundation Block the Blaze (JWCFBTB) presentations and identify group differences with regards to sociodemographic factors. Prior to JWCFBTB presentations delivered in Houston and Dallas by health professions students, a prepresentation melanoma knowledge quiz was distributed. This survey was adapted from a 2000 study evaluating melanoma knowledge in middle and high schoolers in Houston and Dallas. Respondents were also asked to provide their gender, age, grade, race, parent education level, and whether they are a first-generation American. ANOVA and Tukey tests were used to evaluate demographic group differences in scores. Logistic regression models determined predictors of answering selected true/false questions correctly. One-way ANOVA tests showed statistically significant group differences in pre-test scores for all demographic factors evaluated. Females, Whites/Caucasians, students whose parents hold graduate degrees, and older students had higher scores. Black students and non–first-generation Americans were more likely to answer selected commonly missed questions correctly. Results from both 2000 and 2020-2021 indicate older students from higher grade levels know more about melanoma, suggesting adolescents may benefit from earlier skin cancer education. Racial minorities and individuals of low socioeconomic status, who suffer from disparities in melanoma treatment and mortality, also showed poorer melanoma knowledge. Targeting future skin cancer education to disadvantaged schools may help remedy such gaps.

Critique of “MemXCT: Memory-Centric X-Ray CT Reconstruction With Massive Parallelization” by SCC Team From the University of Texas at Austin

This report describes The University of Texas Student Cluster Competition team's effort to reproduce the results of "MemXCT: memory-centric X-ray CT reconstruction with massive parallelization" \cite{memxct}. The paper details a new memory-centric approach that reconstructs X-ray computed tomography (XCT) from noisy raw data. In our reproduction experiments, we utilized Microsoft Azure's CycleCloud tool to provision, orchestrate, and manage our computing cluster in the cloud. In particular, we scheduled and benchmarked reconstruction workloads using Azure's CPU-based HC44rs and GPU-based NC12s v2 virtual machine (VM) types to evaluate the scalability properties of the reconstruction approach and the performance differences between architectures. The HC44rs VMs contained 44 Intel Xeon Platinum cores, while the NC12s v2 VM was equipped with two NVIDIA P100 GPUs. We used a recent version of Intel's compiler stack with the MKL library for our CPU code along with CUDA 11.1 on GPUs. Overall, our results confirm the findings of the original paper, demonstrating similar acceleration on GPUs and scalability properties on CPUs.

Texas Special Education Cap's Associations With Disability Identification Disparities of Racial and Language Minority Students

We used time-varying effect modelling of two very large samples of fourth-grade students ( Nreading = 148,240, Nmathematics = 152,220) to investigate associations between adoption and over-time implementation of a de facto cap on special education service receipt and over-time likelihoods of disability identification from 2003 to 2017 for Texas students including those from historically marginalized communities. Following the cap's adoption, Texas students who are Black or English Language Learners (ELLs) were gradually less likely to have been identified as having disabilities than students in adjoining statues who are Black or ELLs in analyses adjusting for individual academic achievement, family economic disadvantage, school fixed effects, and other explanatory factors. Findings provide additional evidence of the cap's specific associations with disability identification disparities for demographic populations especially likely to have experienced violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's Child Find and free and appropriate public education requirements.

Governors, Regents, and New Deal Liberalism: Student Activism at the University of Texas at Austin, 1917–1945

Governors, Regents, and New Deal Liberalism: Student Activism at the University of Texas at Austin, 1917–1945 John Moretta (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution University of Texas students gather before a protest against Texas governor James E. Ferguson, May 28, 1917. PICA 08003, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. In 1960, southern historian Charles Ramsdell described a University of Texas colleague as “born and marinated in the deep South [Mississippi] and educated at the University of Virginia,” who declared that he found “absolutely no trace of Southern tradition either in the city of Austin or in his students from every part of the state. They are interested, he says, in no [Southern] traditions whatsoever, and Austin is a typical American college town, with a most un-Southern bustle about it; a general student and faculty environment and outlook not much different than that displayed on most of the Northern university campuses he had visited.”1 Inextricably linked and driving much of the city’s exceptionalism, especially when compared to other southern university towns, were the University of Texas’s students, who, beginning in the early twentieth century through World War II, became the vanguard for sociocultural and political [End Page 1] change in the state and institutional reform on their campus. Until the late 1950s and ’60s, student protests and demonstrations were a rarity on southern universities and colleges. However, that was not the case at the University of Texas (UT). Compared to other southern universities during the period, UT became a veritable “hotbed” of progressive student activism, countering the stereotypical image of southern White youth as a mass of conservative conformists at best and racist, red-baiting reactionaries at worst. Although such words may have described some Texans, UT students, especially by the late 1930s, were more inspired to action by the positive views of local, liberal religious leaders and faculty mentors who defied these regressive impulses. By comparison to 1960s direct action, pre-World War II student activism was more interpersonal and self-reflective, originating in existing student organizations, which increasingly reflected student interests in human rights and global peace. In many ways, prewar student advocates established the template for future student protest movements. This article explores some of the pivotal events and issues in the history of UT that ignited student activism in years 1917–45, emboldening collegians to publicly resist institutional policies and outside political interference they believed directly infringed upon their rights as students and the sanctity of the university environment. The university was to be a place where democratic values were inculcated and students’ civil liberties were respected by peers, faculty, and administration. Equally important to UT students by the 1930s was the recognition by regents and administrators that a democratically constituted student government and related student-sanctioned and -supported campus activities and institutions, such as the college newspaper, The Daily Texan, deserved the authority to act and advocate on students’ behalf. By the 1930s, existential crises, particularly the domestic socioeconomic upheaval caused by the Great Depression, further energized many UT students to engage in the reformist impulse unleashed by the New Deal. For many 1930s UT student activists, the Depression years not only revealed the inherent flaws of laissez faire capitalism, but perhaps more importantly, the social consequences of an unregulated economy. In the New Deal liberal ethos, students saw not only the means of immediate amelioration of human despair, but the long-range efficacy of positive government action in both mitigating and remedying future marginalization and disfranchisement, which if not addressed, could lead to class antagonisms and unrest as was the possibility in the 1930s. UT student activists also correlated the external crisis confronting the nation in the 1930s with their internal university battle against the regents’ suppression of academic freedom and student rights. As they saw it, the very same individuals responsible for the economic crisis were now in charge of their university, and as these wealthy plutocrats had abused the economy for their own material aggrandizement, they were inflicting [End Page 2] upon UT a self-serving agenda that was detrimental to the entire university community. American entry into World War II against the...

The Theory of Reasoned Action as a predictor of environmental behavior: A cross-cultural comparison between college students from Texas, Louisiana, and Honduras

ABSTRACT Environmental and ecological degradation has raised concerns worldwide. Negative attitudes toward the environment plus disinterest have led to improper behavior, influencing climate change and global warming. Awareness could have a positive environmental impact by influencing attitudes and behaviors. One way to generate awareness and ensure positive behavior is through education. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), a 33-questions survey was implemented to college students from Texas, Louisiana, and Honduras to (1) compare students’ environmental attitudes, behaviors, and subjective norms at the three universities; and (2) predict how much of the undergraduate students’ environmental behavior variance could be explained by their environmental attitude, subjective norms, and perceived environmental knowledge. Multivariate analysis of variance and hierarchical regressions were performed to address the objectives, respectively. Results showed that Honduras and Louisiana students’ environmental attitudes, behavior, and subjective norms are significantly different than Texas students, and TRA variables increased the prediction of behavior variance by 15%. Understanding interactions between behavior, attitude, knowledge, and subjective norms among college students from different universities may help assess environmental interventions and design successful programs based on group needs.

Perspectives on Consumer and Clinical Genetic Testing Education among Medical Students in West Texas.

There is a popular trend for genetic test companies to market genetic screenings to identify detrimental mutations directly to consumers. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of patients wanting to discuss the results of their personal genetic tests with their physician. In turn, the medical education community has recognized a need to provide medical staff and patients with resources to interpret and act on personal genetic data. Most medical students and residents lack the requisite knowledge to interpret and manage patient-provided individualized genetic testing. This has prompted a growing interest among medical students in learning more about genetic testing and how to counsel their patients on this information. Consequently, early educational exposure to clinical genetic testing and counseling would benefit medical education training programs. In this study, we examine the perceptions of medical students in West Texas with regard to clinical genetic testing.

Remote Versus In-Person Learning During COVID-19: Comparison of E-Cigarette Susceptibility and Ever Use Among a Diverse Cohort of 6th-Grade Students in Texas.

BackgroundIn response to SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19), school districts incorporated remote learning as a mitigation strategy. This study examines the association between classroom setting (i.e., on-campus versus remote) and e-cigarette susceptibility or ever use among a sample of Texas public middle school students.MethodsData from n=985 students enrolled in the CATCH My Breath E-Cigarette Prevention Program trial were collected in Spring 2021. Participants were 6 th grade students in urban Texas. E-cigarette use was examined using the “at-risk” definition described by FDA, indicating either: (1) susceptible never user; or (2) experimental ever use. A multi-level, logistic regression models examined the association between classroom setting and e-cigarette susceptibility/ever use. Covariates included sex, race/ethnicity, academic achievement, household e-cigarette use, perceived school connectedness, and school-level economic status. Models account for nesting within school district. Analyses stratified by race/ethnicity were also conducted.ResultsOverall, 36.3% of the sample were susceptible never users or ever e-cigarette users. The sample was comprised of 55.0% on-campus and 45.0% remote learners. On-campus learners had greater odds of reporting e-cigarette susceptibility or ever use (aOR: 1.45; p=0.014). These findings were observed among Latino (aOR: 1.77; p=0.026) and White (aOR: 2.10; p=0.099) but not African American/Black (aOR: 0.86; p=0.728) youth.ConclusionsOn-campus learning during the Spring 2021 semester was associated with greater risk for e-cigarette susceptibility or ever use among a diverse sample of 6 th grade students. E-cigarette susceptibility and ever use is a risk factor for progression to long-term e-cigarette use in later adolescence.ImplicationsAs school districts prepare to return to on-campus learning in 2022, a focused approach to e-cigarette prevention may be needed to prevent widespread e-cigarette initiation and continued use. Further, study findings demonstrate a need for further research on the school environment as a determinant of e-cigarette use.

Contextualizing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Educational Experiences and Outcomes of Latinx College Students in Texas

ABSTRACT The transition to remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic is feared to have widened the achievement gap previously experienced by students from low socioeconomic and minority backgrounds. We utilized data from the COVID-19 Texas College Student Experiences Survey to assess the impact of the pandemic on Latinx students’ (n = 231) educational experiences and outcomes, including perceptions about institutional resources, coursework outcomes and experiences, and home educational environments. Regression models examined within-Latinx differences in educational outcomes across age, gender, income, nativity, parental status, student classification, and enrollment status. Interactions between student classification and the other student characteristics were tested. Overall, the educational experiences and outcomes of Latinx students varied significantly in the initial months of the pandemic. Latinx students from low-income backgrounds had less access to home educational resources, had lower GPAs, expected their GPAs to decline, and their ability/motivation to complete coursework was negatively impacted compared to high-income students. Undergraduates also experienced more challenges than graduate students, and in some instances, gender and income differences in educational experiences were worse among undergraduates. Higher education institutions and policymakers should support policies that expand access to educational tools and resources to facilitate learning during the pandemic and to better support Latinx students.

Adverse childhood experiences and college student health promotion outcomes: Another perspective on the trauma‐health relationship

AbstractMost research to date has focused on negative health outcomes associated with adverse childhood experience (ACE) exposure. The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between ACE exposure and health information seeking, health promoting behaviours and health screening among US college students. Supplemental ACE items were added to the cross‐sectional National College Health Assessment survey administered between 2017 and 2018 with young adult (ages 18–29) college students in California (n = 3862) and Texas (n = 451). Approximately 41.9 per cent of participants reported ACE. ACE‐exposed participants were consistently and significantly less likely to receive health information from their university (p < 0.01). Using multivariable logistic regression models, reporting four or more ACE was associated with significantly lower odds of past year seatbelt use (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.44–0.89) and past 30‐day condom use during oral sex (AOR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.27–0.97). Increases in ACE exposure were significantly associated with an increase in the odds of ever testing for HIV (AORs:1.26–2.49). Longitudinal research is needed to uncover the complex interplay between ACE, mental health, negative health behaviours and health promotion activities among young adults. Interventions to improve health promotion activities in ACE‐exposed populations could improve health and quality of life for this vulnerable population.Key Practitioner Messages ACE exposure has a potentially harmful impact on health education efforts and health promotion outcomes including healthy behaviours and obtaining regular health screenings. Young adults with a history of ACE exposure are more likely to report HIV screenings and more work is needed to uncover the reason for this association. College campus health education and promotion programs should target ACE affected young adults.

Modeling Deception: A Case Study of Email Phishing

Information manipulation for deception continues to evolve at a remarkable rate. Artificial intelligence has greatly reduced the burden of combing through documents for evidence of manipulation; but it has also enabled the development of clever modes of deception. In this study, we modeled deception attacks by examining phishing emails that successfully evaded detection by the Microsoft 365 filtering system. The sample population selected for this study was the University of North Texas students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees who maintain their university email accounts. The model explains why certain individuals and organizations are selected as targets, and identifies potential counter measures and counter attacks. Over a one-year period, 432 phishing emails with different features, characters, length, context and semantics successfully passed through Microsoft Office 365 filtering system. The targeted population ranged from 18 years old up to those of retirement age; ranged across educational levels from undergraduate through doctoral levels; and ranged across races. The unstructured data was preprocessed by filtering out duplicates to avoid overemphasizing a single attack. The term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and distribution of words over documents (topic modeling) were analyzed. Results show that staff and students were the main target audience, and the phishing email volume spiked in the summer and holiday season. The TF-IDF analysis showed that the phishing emails could be categorized under six categories: reward, urgency, job, entertainment, fear, and curiosity. Analysis showed that attackers use information gap theory to bait email recipients to open phishing emails with no subject line or very attractive subject line in about thirty percent of cases. Ambiguity remains the main stimulus used by phishing attackers, while the reinforcements used to misinform the targets range from positive reinforcements (prize, reward) to negative reinforcements (blackmail, potential consequences).

Positive Affect and Multiple-tobacco Product Use among Youth: A 3-year Longitudinal Study.

Objectives: Multiple-tobacco product (MTP) use is common among adolescent tobacco users. Low positive affect is a risk factor for e-cigarette use and combustible tobacco smoking. In this study, we examine the longitudinal relationship between positive affect and MTP use in a diverse cohort of adolescents in Texas. Methods: We analyzed 6 waves of biennial data (fall 2014-spring 2017) from the Texas Adolescent Tobacco and Marketing Surveillance (TATAMS) system. Participants were 3868 sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade students in urban Texas, at enrollment. Multinomial logistic regression models examined the longitudinal relationship between positive affect and categories of MTP use, controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, past 30-day alcohol use, cohort, survey wave, and peer tobacco use. Results: The sample was comprised of 4.6% single-product users, 1.7% dual-users, and 0.7% poly-users. Each unit decrease in positive affect was associated with increased risk for single- (RRR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.16-1.44), dual- (RRR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.11-1.64), and poly- (RRR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.54-2.54) use, relative to non-use. Similarly, each unit decrease in positive affect was also associated with increased risk for poly-tobacco use relative to single- (RRR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.19-1.97) and dual- (RRR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.11-1.95) use. Positive affect did not differentiate between single- and dual-use. Conclusion: We observed a gradient relationship between low positive affect and greater number of tobacco products used. Findings reinforce the association between poor mental health and tobacco use during adolescence. Prevention efforts may need to incorporate methods of addressing low positive affect.

POSTER ABSTRACTS: P61 YOUNG PEOPLE'S ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTIVE SERVICES THROUGH TELEMEDICINE: INEQUITIES BY FOOD AND HOUSING INSECURITY

Objectives: To examine disparities in access to telemedicine visits for contraception during the COVID-19 pandemic by young people's experiences of basic needs insecurity. Methods: We collected data from May 2020 to March 2021 from people at risk of pregnancy aged 18–28 in an ongoing study of community college students in California and Texas (n=1,352). Multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusted for clustering by site, were conducted to examine differences in access to contraceptive services through telemedicine by food and housing insecurity, controlling for age, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and other key sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Only 9% of participants received their birth control method through a phone or video visit. One quarter (24%) reported it would be difficult to have a telemedicine visit for birth control. Perceived barriers to telemedicine included lacking privacy at home (42%), not knowing how to do a telemedicine visit (25%), lacking a device or Internet connection (23%), clinics not offering telemedicine (16%), and insurance not covering telemedicine (13%). Half (51%) stated they needed to get their method in person, while 36% would not feel comfortable using telemedicine, and 78% preferred in-person visits. Participants experiencing food insecurity (adjustedOR [aOR], 2.14;95% confidence interval [CI], 1.59–2.88) and housing insecurity (aOR, 1.66;95% CI, 1.16–2.38) were significantly more likely to report that they would have difficulty using telemedicine for birth control. Conclusions: Efforts are needed to remove barriers to telemedicine, particularly for young people facing basic needs insecurity, and to ensure that safe, high-quality in-person contraceptive services also remain accessible.

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security of Latinx Students at a Large, Hispanic-Serving, Public University in Central Texas

Describe facilitators and barriers to food security among Latinx college students in Central Texas.

Predicting Reading Performance by Texas Student Demographics Characteristics: A Statewide Analysis

Analyzed in this research study was the degree to which demographic characteristics (i.e., economic status, ethnicity/race, English Language Learner status) of Grade 3 students in Texas schools was related to their reading achievement as assessed by the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Reading test. Archival data from the Texas Education Agency, Public Education Information Management System, were analyzed using a causal-comparative research design. Specifically examined was each of the variables listed above for 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years separately for boys and girls, followed by comparing these variables across the four school years. Statistically significant results were present in all four school years for boys and girls. In three of the four years analyzed regarding boys' performance, being Poor, Black, or Hispanic was indicative of not meeting the Meets Grade Level standard. In three of the four years investigated regarding girls' performance, being White or Asian was indicative of meeting the Meets Grade Level standard. Implications for policy and practice, as well as recommendations for future research, are provided.

Uncovering whiteness as discourse: A critical discourse analysis of the in-state resident tuition debate for undocumented students in Texas

Undocumented college students in the United States encounter a number of structural barriers to postsecondary education success, including disparate in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policies across the country. Texas, the first state to establish ISRT benefits for undocumented college students, has been a site of tension respective to this issue over the last 20 years. In fact, there have been eight legislative attempts to repeal the state’s affirmative ISRT policy. In order to investigate this ongoing ISRT debate in Texas, we used critical discourse analysis methods to analyze the implicit and explicit messages communicated in the policy and surrounding policy discourse. Our conceptual framework, grounded in three constructs of critical whiteness studies including ontological expansiveness, color evasiveness, and individualization, allowed us to uncover whiteness as a pernicious undergirding force within this policy discourse.

“Part of Their Chemistry”: The Reproduction of Neoliberal Governmentality in Principal and Teacher Subjectivities

In the voyage to increase student achievement, centralized education agencies apply pressure to school principals and teachers in ways that transform their work. This critical ethnographic study of a historically underperforming public elementary school serving predominantly Latinx/a/o students in Texas utilized poststructural theories of subjectivity to demonstrate how the political system of educational policy governs, in plural and contradictory ways, a principal and her teachers in a school serving marginalized youth. The results expose the ways in which neoliberal power is reproduced through the participants who questioned and subtly resisted the practices that they implemented to improve student achievement. The study has implications for both practitioners and researchers to come together in order to reconcile the difficult subjectivities that participants exhibited while they implemented neoliberal policies.

State of Student Aid in Texas (2021)

The State of Student Aid and Higher Education in Texas (SOSA) annual report from Trellis Research provides information helpful in informing policy and programs for higher education student financial aid. The report serves as a reference for colleges, universities, and policymakers, and provides a comparison of Texas state and federal student aid programs. A primary goal of the SOSA is to serve as a resource for generating healthy discussions based on a common understanding of the facts. For more than two decades, Trellis has made this complimentary report available to lawmakers and higher education institutions to help inform their work as they shape policies and programs affecting Texas students. This report highlights data on a variety of student finance topics, including higher education, demographic projections, college costs, student loan repayment outcomes, and higher education policy.

Texas Grade 3 Underrepresented Boys and Economic Status Differences in Reading: A Statewide, Multiyear Study

In this statewide, multiyear analysis, the extent to which differences were present in reading by the economic status of Grade 3 Asian, Black, and Hispanic boys was determined. Specifically examined was the relationship of poverty to the three State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Reading Reporting Categories for Grade 3 Asian, Black, and Hispanic boys in the 2015-2016 through the 2018-2019 school years. Also examined was the relationship of poverty to the STAAR Grade Level Phase-in Standards for Grade 3 Asian, Black, and Hispanic boys. Inferential statistical analyses revealed the presence of statistically significant differences in reading as a function of the economic status of Asian boys, Black boys, and Hispanic boys. In every instance, Asian boys, Black boys, and Hispanic boys who were Poor were outperformed by their counterparts who were Not Poor. Considering the majority of students in Texas come from poverty backgrounds, these findings are of great concern. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.