College readiness in Texas

A study published in the academic journal Education and Urban Society a few months ago analyzed the college-readiness in reading and math of Texas high school students (n = 1,099 high schools) in the 2006-07 school year. The authors found that roughly 1 in 3 students were college-ready in both subject areas, although Hispanic and African American students were less likely to be college-ready.

The authors suggest that "within-group differences" (comparing, for example Hispanic students against other Hispanic students) could be used to inform intervention strategies to enhance the college preparedness of minority students. And in fact, Texas has since implemented policies to better track the number and percentage of students opting out of the default college-ready curriculum into the less-rigorous "minimum" high school curriculum. These policies include a 2009 amendment to Sec. 39.057 of the education code, which now calls for the commissioner of education to authorize a special accreditation investigation when excessive numbers of students in a district graduate under the minimum high school program, or excessive numbers of students eligible to enroll in Algebra II fail to do so, or fail to enroll in any other course that distinguishes the minimum high school program from the default ("recommended") high school program.