ERIC Number: ED397082
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1995-Nov-8
Pages: 69
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Texas' High School Report Cards on Schools: What Parents, Educators, or Policymakers Can Glean from Them.
Bobbett, Gordon C.; And Others
This paper extends a series of studies examining school district report cards, which began with investigations of Tennessee's report card data. Since 1988, the Texas State Board of Education has produced a report card on each school district to report district-level data. Texas district report card items were organized into student outcome indicators and demographic categories. The study used 10 of the 13 categories in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills and the College Admissions Tests as the dependent variables representing student outcomes. Independent variables representing demographic items came from 73 items in 7 areas. How school district characteristics related to student outcomes, and their relative importance, and the categories that were strongly associated with student outcomes were studied, along with district accreditation status. Most categories on the Texas report card had little or no meaningful relationship to student outcomes. However, of the three with the most positive relationship, two, attendance and teacher turnover, can be addressed in school improvement efforts, although percentage of economically disadvantaged students, the third category, is not susceptible to school improvement efforts. The choice of statistical techniques used to examine complex relationships between student outcomes and related factors influenced the products of the examinations. In fact, the Texas report card, like those of some other states, does not include information on some of the most important factors influencing student performance. Eleven appendixes examine various statistical associations among dependent and independent variables. (Contains 10 tables, 30 appendix tables, 1 figure, and 18 references.) (SLD)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Attendance, College Entrance Examinations, Demography, Economically Disadvantaged, Educational Assessment, Educational Change, Evaluation Utilization, Faculty Mobility, High Schools, Institutional Characteristics, Outcomes of Education, Predictor Variables, Report Cards, School Districts, State Programs, Statistical Analysis, Student Characteristics, Testing Programs
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A