written by Michael Marder

This 2010 PhysTEC Conference presentation discusses data, mainly from Texas, and mainly from high-stakes mathematics tests, that illustrate the very different educational outcomes for well-off and low-income students. A range of descriptive statistics that describe student performance within a single year is presented before longitudinal data is examined.

Some of the questions addressed include:

• What are the grades at which low-income students fall behind the fastest?
• Do ethnic background and low income have independent effects on student outcomes?
• How do charter schools compare with ordinary public schools?
• Which students are disappearing from the school system, and when does it happen?
• Is the pressure of the accountability system having an effect on college readiness?
• Which are the high-performing schools and forward-looking educational policies that will increase, for example, the numbers of research physicists?

Averages and results for schools throughout Texas are presented.

• Download Achievement Gap in Texas.pdf - 6014kb Adobe PDF Document

Last Modified February 24, 2010