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The number of schools in the State of Texas that reported passing rates in reading and in math of White students and of Hispanic students varied by school year. Texas does not permit the release of information that might allow students to be identified. The requirements for sample sizes to release student information are set in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Thus, in cases where all Hispanic students at a school obtained a passing score in reading or in math, their data would not be publically available. Similarly, when small numbers of Hispanic students were present at a school, their data would also not be made publically available. Sample sizes of schools are present in Tables 1 through 6. In every case, the sample size for each statistical analysis was over 1,000 schools. Readers should note that the data analysis were aggregated data at the elementary campus level. As such, specific demographic information regarding student characteristics other than Hispanic or White were not available.

Instrumentation

Archival data collected through the Academic Excellence Indicator System across a 16-year time period (i.e., 1993-2009) was used to determine the extent to which an achievement gap existed between Hispanic students and White students. The Academic Excellence Indicator System is a composite of information pertaining to all students in the state of Texas. This information was first compiled in 1984 in response to the achievement gap between White students and non-White students and accountability within schools and districts across Texas (Academic Excellence Indicator System, http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/about.aeis.html). Each year, annual reports are added to the AEIS website and the performance of students are reported in the following areas: results of the TAAS and the TAKS tests; passing rates of students; attendance rates; progress prior year TAKS failures; Exit-level TAKS cumulative passing rates; annual drop out rates; completion rates; and college readiness indicators (Academic Excellence Indicator System, (External Link) ). With the objective of this research study being to examine differences in academic achievement between Hispanic students and White students, data downloaded were the passing rates on the TAKS Reading and Math exams by ethnic membership as well as the TAAS Reading and Math exams by ethnic membership.

According to the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) passing standard for reading and math in the fifth grade are as followed:

In reading, 40 is the total possible points given to a student to receive 100% passing rate and 28 points for students to receive 70% passing rate; and in writing, 32 is the total possible point that are given to a student to receive 100% passing rate and 18 points for students to receive 56% passing rate ( (External Link) ).

The State of Texas sets the score for what is considered to be a passing rate, based upon its analysis of item difficulty and student performance, separately for the reading and for the math exams.

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Source:  OpenStax, The achievement gap between white and non-white students. OpenStax CNX. Jan 10, 2012 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11402/1.4
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