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The purpose of this study is to determine whether the present equalization law is sounder than certain previous equalization laws.

This study traced the development of the Equity 2000 Program in the Fort Worth Independent School District from its inception in 1990 to its sixth and final year as an exemplary program for equal access to higher education for minority and underserved youth. Program components included mathematics, counseling, staff development, academic enrichment activities, parent education and higher education linkages. Both primary and secondary sources were evaluated from the perspectives of internal and external criticism. The following conclusions were reached: 1) District policy must change if minority students are going to access algebra and geometry. 2) The lack of involvement of other curriculum areas created primarily a mathematics inservice program. 3) Required inservice was necessary to provide improved and more effective campus and district results. 4) The precollege guidance and counseling component needed integration with the mathematics component. 5) Lack of principals' involvement in the early development of the program contributed to uneven administrative support. 6) There was no definitive strategy for parental inclusion. 7) Funding sources were inadequate to fully implement all parts of the program. 8) There was limited participation of local institutions of higher education. 9) There was a lack of an ongoing, structured evaluation process to document the program's effectiveness. 10) Attitudes and perceptions of minority students and their parents about success in higher level mathematics courses can change over time. 11) The program was costly with limited documentation of the results. 12) Much of the training provided mathematics teachers and guidance counselors should be preservice instruction. The researcher made the following recommendations: conduct a historical study at each Equity site; continue the Summer Mathematics and Guidance Institutes; continue the Saturday Academy and the Algebra/Geometry Readiness Academies; provide outreach efforts to parents; provide precollege information to students and their parents; and provide related teacher and counselor preservice training.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of educational inequalities existing in the West Independent School District and the eight surrounding rural school districts, and to suggest changes that might improve educational opportunities for all children involved.

The need to establish appropriate, adequate, and decent educational facilities for school children across the nation has been well-established. The ability of school districts in each state to build these facilities has varied widely in the past. Historically, most facilities funding ability for school districts has come from the local community and has been tied to property wealth and the ability of the community to raise significant tax dollars to pay for school buildings. Responding to an expanding need for increased facilities funding and school funding litigation, the state of Texas added facilities funding mechanisms for public school facilities construction in the late 1990s. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the methods of facilities funding were equitable in the state of Texas. In this study, equity values were framed around three equity concepts established in school funding equity literature. These three concepts were (1) horizontal equity defined as the equal treatment of equals, (2) vertical equity defined as the unequal treatment of unequals, and (3) wealth neutrality defined as the absence of a relationship between school district wealth and the equal opportunity of students. The sample comprised 1,039 school districts in the state of Texas. Well-established equity measures were administered to data including capital outlays, weighted per pupil capital outlays, instructional facilities allotments, and school district wealth. Horizontal equity measures included the McLoone index, the Verstegen index, the federal range ratio, and the coefficient of variation tests. The Odden-Picus Adequacy index (OPAI) was administered to determine levels of vertical equity. Finally, wealth neutrality was determined utilizing the Pearson product-moment correlation test. Findings indicated that there were poor horizontal equity levels both in the top half and bottom half of the distribution of capital outlay spenders. A coefficient of variation test was administered to determine overall horizontal equity. While it did not indicate poor overall horizontal equity, the existence of extreme outliers in both halves of the distribution indicated that the dispersion of spending at the top and bottom of the distribution were inequitable. In fact, over the three year period of the study, fifteen percent of the top spending districts spent between forty and fifty percent of all capital outlay expenditures. Vertical equity was tested by implementing a court mandated equalization standard of eighty-five percent. When the OPAI was administered at this equity level, vertical equity was poorer than horizontal equity. Finally, while some state implemented facilities funding mechanisms were wealth-neutral, the overall funding system, with its heavy reliance on bonded indebtedness, was not.

All Texas school districts were examined to determine the relationship of district size and diversity to the accountability ratings of selected Texas school districts and the implications of including all data in the accountability rating system. Eight large districts and 12 small districts were matched demographically utilizing data from the 2003-2004 school year. Information from the Texas Education Agency was accessed over 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. The ratings were found to be lowered from Recognized to Academically Acceptable with the inclusion of these groups 6 out of 20 times. These findings indicate that the Texas accountability system, in its current structure, excludes certain students based upon race and economic status and is not in compliance with what the law intended. This study should be replicated on a larger scale to assess its validity for a larger sample of small districts. Equity among states should be examined to provide information for a nationwide accountability system.

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This thesis examines the equality of physical education, health, and recreation for middle school boys in Amarillo, Texas. Data gathered at three schools in the city informed the author's conclusions.

The problem of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of the educational opportunities of the two elementary schools in Sinton, Texas, one of which is composed of Anglo-Americans and the other of Latin-Americans.

Bound by compulsory attendance laws, over 48 million children attend public schools in the United States each year. Unfortunately, for a growing percentage of these students, compulsory attendance has not resulted in equitable achievement. In spite of educational reforms aimed at the school, district, state, and most recently, federal level, academic achievement gaps continue to exist between students of color and students of poverty as compared to white and/or more economically advantaged peers. Previously identified Educational Frameworks including the Effective Schools Correlates, Malcolm Baldrige Quality Improvement Educational Criteria, Stupski Foundation Components, and Professional Learning Communities Characteristics have described the elements present in successful schools and districts; however research into the process of how districts have made progress toward closing achievement gaps is less prevalent. This grounded theory study examined the processes employed by a single Texas school district serving over 26,000 students in an economically and ethnically diverse community which had made progress in closing achievement gaps with all students. Data gathered through semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and document reviews informed the findings. The research utilized Strauss and Corbin's three stages of coding: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) for data analysis. Findings regarding the processes employed revealed that the district: created systems to select, develop and, evaluate leadership personnel; nurtured a district culture of shared accountability for results; crafted systems of accountability; built district structures to support learning and achievement; endorsed district-level decision-making; engineered a research-based and inquirydriven decision-making culture; intentionally managed change; deployed systems district-wide to impact change at the campus and classroom level, and embraced a commitment to professional learning.