The University of Texas at Austin
Education Research Center
Dr. Celeste Alexander, Associate
Director
The University of Texas at Austin
The Texas ERC
.
Available Data
 The ERCs provide access to high
quality, longitudinal data from the Texas
Education Agency (TEA), the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board
(THECB), the State Board of Educator
Certification (SBEC), and more data in
the future.
TEA Data
 Student, staff, teachers, demographic,
administrators, finance, and organization.
 Student data
 enrollment, attendance, course completion, graduation,
dropout, special education, discipline, and TAKS (and
previous TAAS) performance
 Staff and Finance data
 staffing and employment, finance, and budget
 Teacher (SBEC) data
 Teacher certification, certification route, years of experience,
and certification test scores.
THECB Data
 THECB reports:
 Student Enrollment (2000-2009)
 Texas Academic Skills Program / Texas Success
Initiative (1990-2009) - ASSET, ACCUPLACER,
COMPASS, and THEA
 Class Report (2000-2009)
 Faculty Report (2000-2009)
 Graduates Report (1990-2008)
 Facilities Room Inventory Report (2006-2008)
 Facilities Building Inventory Report (2006-2008)
 Students in Continuing Education Courses Report
(2000-2009)
 Admissions Report (2000-2009)
 Continuing Education Class Report (2000-2009)
 Marketable Skills Achievement Report (2002-2008)
 Residents/Fellows Report (2008-2009)
Future Data Additions
 Texas Workforce Commission data
 College Board data
 Advanced Placement scores (2000-2009)
 PSAT (1999-2009)
 SAT (2003-2009)
 ACT scores
 National Student Clearinghouse data
 Few years down the road – TEA will link
students to teachers
A
Areas of Interest
 High School Success
 Transition from High School to Postsecondary
 Postsecondary Success
 Student Success in STEM Areas
 Educator Success
 Study of Language Acquisition
Areas of Interest
 High School Success
 Houston Area Study of High School Transition
 P-16 Council Enhancement Grants
 Transition from High School to Postsecondary
 Houston Area Study of High School Transition
 Postsecondary Success
 Early College High School Study
 Student Success in STEM Areas
 4 X 4 Policy Evaluation
 UTEACH Engineering
 Educator Success
 Teacher Incentive Fund
 THECB – college and Career Readiness Standards & Teacher Preparation
 Study of Language Acquisition
 TEA – Non-StandardDialects
Accessing TERC Data
 FERPA Compliant Review Process for Approval of Research Projects
1. Write a proposal describing research and data needed from the
ERC for the research.
2. Submit proposal to ERC.
3. ERC will review contents and need. Requests for revisions may be made. It will
then be forwarded to the JAB.
4. The JAB will review proposal.
5. At the JAB meeting the members will vote on whether the proposed work
meets the requirements of quality and need.
Research Criteria
 Potential contribution to theory and/or practice
 Potential to benefit education in the state of Texas
 The proposal makes a strong case for benefiting education in the state of Texas.
 Strength and appropriateness of methodology
 Proposal contains clear, concise hypothesis or research questions.
 Data selected are appropriate for addressing the research questions.
 The type of analysis being proposed is appropriate given the research objectives.
 If the project involves evaluating an intervention, the type of intervention being evaluated (e.g. curriculum,
teacher professional development, policy) is described.
 Participants and/or student population is described.
 If the project requires the collection of primary supplemental data, the instruments to be used in the project
are described.
 Researchers qualifications
 The researcher, research team or doctoral student (or advisor) demonstrates expertise in the
relevant content area and other related research activities (e.g. data analyses).
 Broader impact of the proposed project—the proposed project is likely to—
 Broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g. gender, ethnicity, geographic, etc.)
 Enhance the infrastructure for research and education
 Benefit and/or inform educational policy and practice
 Dissemination strategy
 The proposal lays out an effective strategy for disseminating results
 Access to adequate resources
 The research(s) have described adequate resources to complete the project in a timely
manner.
FERPA Compliant Review Process for Approval of Research Projects Upon submission and approval of a research project by the Joint advisory Board (JAB), researchers are granted access to the Texas ERC. Research is conducted for a designated period of Dme during which interim and final research results are reviewed and released. When a research project terminates, all of the perDnent data in the project’s workspace is archived for future reference and revalidaDon of research results.
TERC
 TERC is committed providing access to
researchers and maintaining the security of
the data.
 TERC is committed to supporting and
performing research that benefits students of
Texas.
TERC
The goal of TERC is to supply
policymakers, leaders, the media, and
the general public with academically
sound research surrounding today's
critical education issues
Contact TERC
Director:
Dr. Pedro Reyes
512-322-3789 or Preyes@utsystem.edu
Associate Director:
Dr. Celeste Alexander
512-232-6205 or
Celeste.Alexander@austin.utexas.edu
website: www.utaustinerc.org