Title

Do Resources Matter? An Analysis of instructional Spending On College Readiness Indicators in Texas

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Fall 2012

Abstract

Expectations and legislation have placed new accountability measures on educators to ensure that students are college ready upon high school graduation. Research was necessary to analyze the relationship between instructional spending and college readiness measures as reported on the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) in Texas. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not a relationship existed between instructional spending and college readiness as measured by the exit-level Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) English language arts assessment and the math exit-level TAKS assessment. The study included the majority of K-12 public school districts in the state of Texas for the 2010-2011 school year. The descriptive statistics determined if a correlation existed between the levels of instructional spending per student and the percentage of students scoring at the college readiness level on exit-level TAKS. A multiple regression analysis, specifically a product moment correlation, was utilized to determine if a statistically significant relationship existed between the variables defined in the study. To gain further insight, college readiness advisors were interviewed concerning their perceptions of what makes a student college ready. With the push for college readiness to be achieved by all students, the topic of funding adequacy has been and will continue to be an issue. The information collected in this study adds to the existing limited body of knowledge related to college readiness. Although this research concluded there was no statistically significant relationship between instructional spending amounts and the college ready graduate measures on the 2011 AEIS reports, there are still viable implications regarding college readiness. The researcher provided additional research in the area of college readiness and perceptions of what was needed for students to be college ready. This research will be beneficial for future planning for curricular and budgetary functions of public school districts. Therefore, this research purports relevancy for legislators, administrators, taxpayers and educators at both the high school and college level.

Advisor

Casey Brown

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision

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