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Abstract
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.
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Author Biographies
Wally Barnes is the director of the Reading Center at Sam Houston State University where he received his EdD in educational leadership in August 2010. His research interests are college readiness, developmental education, and student success initiatives.
John R. Slate is a professor at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, where he teaches research, data analysis, and academic and professional writing to doctoral students in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling. His research interests lie in the use of state and national education databases for school improvement.
