Houston Education Research Consortium

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https://hdl.handle.net/1911/117369
The Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) is a research-practice partnership between the Kinder Institute and 10 Houston-area school districts to guide data-driven, equity-minded policy. HERC uses a jointly developed research agenda that involves both researchers and school district leaders working together on critical issues to improve educational equity. The research center follows a long-term, rather than project-based, collaboration to solve longstanding problems with a focus on informing decision-makers directly.

Learn more about HERC on its website

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Browsing Houston Education Research Consortium by Author "Alvear, Sandra"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Changing Schools, Part 1: Student Mobility during the Summer Months in Texas and the Houston Area
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2020) Potter, Daniel; Alvear, Sandra; Bao, Katharine; Kennedy, Camila; Min, Jie
    Changing schools impacts students’ achievement, educational attainment, and their relationships with peers and teachers. Mobile students tend to have lower grades and test scores, experience grade retention more frequently, and are more likely to drop out of school (Rumberger, 2003; South, Haynie, & Bose, 2007). As the evidence of student mobility’s negative consequences grows, understanding the influence of mobility on schooling in Texas and the Houston area becomes increasingly important. Before examining mobility’s impact, however, we have to understand its prevalence. This research brief offers an initial, descriptive look at summer mobility, or mobility that takes place between school years.
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    Changing Schools, Part 2: Student Mobility during the School Year in Texas and the Houston Area. Research Brief for the Houston Independent School District. Volume 8, Issue 5.
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2019) Potter, Daniel; Alvear, Sandra; Bao, Katharine; Min, Jie
    Student mobility refers to students changing schools. In this series of research briefs, the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) examines and describes the amount of student mobility in Texas, with particular focus on Houston area public schools. This second research brief focuses on providing an overview of how much mobility takes place during the school year (i.e., within school years). Other research briefs give more detail on school changes during the summer time, the percentage of mobility that stays within district and how much crosses between school districts, as well as differences in mobility across subgroups of students.
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    Changing Schools, Part 3: Student Mobility within and between Districts in Texas and the Houston Area.
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2020) Potter, Daniel; Alvear, Sandra; Bao, Katharine; Kennedy, Camila; Min, Jie
    Students who move between schools in the same district often have different experiences than students who move into an entirely new school district. Changing schools within a district allows students to stay embedded in the larger district structure and their student information often follows them in real-time, as schools within districts have efficient ways of sharing information across campuses (Kerbow, Azcoitia, & Buell, 2003). Alternatively, students changing districts have new structures and cultures to adjust to, as well as possible delays in their student information following them to their new school. This can leave students without services and accommodations they might otherwise receive sooner (Xu, Hannaway, & D’Souza, 2009). This brief examines the prevalence of these within-district, between-district, and non-Texas public school system moves in Texas and the Houston area.
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    Changing Schools, Part 4: Differences in School Year Student Mobility by Subgroup
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Potter, Daniel; Alvear, Sandra; Bao, Katharine; Kennedy, Camila; Min, Jie
    This study used seven years of data from the state of Texas (2010-11 through 2016-17) to illustrate how statewide patterns of school year student mobility differed by subgroup. There were differences in the rates of mobility during the school year by both race and socioeconomic status. Specifically, Black students and economically disadvantaged students had higher mobility rates than their peers from other subgroups. There were also subgroup differences in the destination of these moves. A higher percent of the moves made by Hispanic and Black students, economically disadvantaged students, and English learners (EL) students took place within districts. A higher percent of moves made by White, Asian, and non-economically disadvantaged students took place out of the Texas Public School System (TPSS).
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    Student Mobility in Texas and the Houston Area: Summary Report
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2022) Potter, Daniel; Bao, Katharine; Gill, Patrick; Sánchez-Soto, Gabriela; Kennedy, Camila Cigarroa; Stice, Kenneth; Alvear, Sandra; Min, Jie
    Each school year, in the state of Texas, students unexpectedly change schools almost 450,000 times. In the Houston region alone, students change schools more than 60,000 times. These school changes are not random, tend to be geographically contained though not within school districts, and carry significant ramifications in the short-term for students’ performance on STAAR accountability tests and in the long-term for their risk of dropping out and failing to graduate from high school on-time. This report is the culmination of a multi-year study on student mobility undertaken by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Houston Education Research Consortium in collaboration with 10 public school districts in the Houston area. Complementary research briefs have been released providing more details on the full set of findings that are highlighted in this report. As such, this report pulls forward a selection of key takeaways from the overall study with a particular focus on implications for Houston area districts and recommendations districts could consider as they continue to work to support mobile students.