Title

An Exploration of the Impact of Four Years of District-Funded PSAT/SAT Administrations on Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Students in a North Texas School District

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Summer 2022

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how district funding for 4 years of PSAT administrations for all students in Grades 8–11 impacted Hispanic students at a North Texas school district. Using college admissions data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), the researcher examined overall district-wide college admissions percentages for 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities for Hispanic and non-Hispanic student populations of each of the four graduating classes from 2017–2020. The researcher also sought to determine whether there were any significant differences in the PSAT and SAT scores between two groups of the 2020 graduating class (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic students) across five tests between 2015 and 2019, as the first cohort after implementation of the district’s PSAT/SAT free testing policy. The researcher used repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and mixed models ANOVA tests to compare the PSAT and SAT scores of Hispanic and White non-Hispanic students. The ex-post-facto data consisted of score reports from the October administrations of the College Board PSAT for a single cohort of students across 4 years, starting their eighth-grade year (the 2015–2016 academic year) and concluding their junior year (the 2018–2019 academic year) and the SAT School Day administration that the students took in March of their junior year (2018–2019).

Advisor

Danna Beaty-Boudreaux

Subject Categories

Education | Secondary Education

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