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The Interplay Between Economic Status and Race/Ethnicity in the 8th Grade Cohort

ByBlake Decker

This blog entry serves as the final in our summer series presenting data and insights from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (THECB) “Texas Talent Trajectory (T3)” project. Our previous blog posts have explored data on educational outcomes for members of the three-year 8th-grade cohort (FY2011-FY2013) based on success measures at three different timepoints: high school graduation, higher education enrollment, and higher education credentials earned in Texas. This post combines variables from the last two posts to see how the combination of economic status and race/ethnicity affected student outcomes for 8th-grade students who were enrolled at Texas public middle schools in the three-year cohort.

Texas Talent Trajectory (T3) Data Comparison by Economic Status and Race/Ethnicity

  • Economic Status was defined by the Texas Education Agency as being a student who was “eligible to participate in the national free or reduced price lunch program” during their 8th-grade year (T3 Appendix). Of the more than 1.08 million students in the 3-year cohort, over 57% (619K) were considered to be economically disadvantaged.
  • High School Diploma: Across the state of Texas, there was an almost 10-percentage point difference between the “Not Economically Disadvantaged” group (86.4%) and the “Economically Disadvantaged” group (77.0%) in terms of high school graduation rate.  Across the race/ethnicity groups within the “Not Economically Disadvantaged” students, the percentage point spread was less than 4 percentage points (84.6% for Black/African American students versus 88.4% for the “Other” student group). For the economically disadvantaged group, there is a larger gap in high school diploma rates (70.4% for White students versus 80% for “Other” students). Within race/ethnicity categories, the gap based on economic status was smallest for the Hispanic student group (85.9% for not economically disadvantaged vs 78.9% for economically disadvantaged), while the widest gap was for White students (86.7% versus 70.4%, respectively).
NOTES: The “Statewide” data provide the average percentage for each of the outcome variables. Current T3 data do not include enrollment and earning of credentials at out-of-state higher education institutions. These data, plus employment outcomes, will be added by THECB in the future. Hovering over the symbols in each chart will show additional information.
Abbreviations: "HS" = High School | "HE" = Higher Education | "EconDis" = Economically Disadvantaged | "Not EconDis" = Not Economically Disadvantaged
  • Higher Education Enrollment: Less than 43% of economically disadvantaged students in the statewide 8th-grade cohort enrolled in Texas public institutions, while almost 65% of not economically disadvantaged enrolled. White students who were economically disadvantaged enrolled in Texas higher education at the lowest rate (37.2%), while 42.5% of Hispanic students and 46.6% of Black students in the economically disadvantaged group enrolled in Texas higher education. 
  • Higher Education Credential: Based on economic status, there was an almost 21-point difference statewide in the percentage of students who earned a higher education credential (certificate, associates, bachelors) from a Texas public institution within 11 years of starting the 8th grade: 36.4% of the not economically disadvantaged students versus 15.8% for economically disadvantaged students. While the “Other” student group had the highest credential-earning rate at 29.4% for economically disadvantaged students in the 8th-grade cohort, economically-disadvantaged Hispanic students earned a higher education credential at a rate of 16.3%, with 13.6% of White students and 12.6% of Black students in the economically disadvantaged group earning a higher education credential in Texas public institutions. 

So What?

In wrapping-up our summer blog series, let’s revisit some of the key findings from our exploration of the Texas Talent Trajectory (T3) data for the 8th-grade cohort:

  • Out of the 1.08 million students in the combined three-year 8th-grade cohort, 76% (823,083) did not earn a high school diploma and/or a higher education credential in Texas during the 11 years after entering the 8th grade in Texas public middle schools.
  • Only 16.3% of Hispanic students in the 8th-grade cohort enrolled in a 4-year public university in Texas, with 22.6% of Black students and 27.1% of White students enrolling in Texas public universities within 6 years of high school graduation.
  • Less than 25% of the 1.08M students in the 8th-grade cohort earned a higher education credential within 11 years of entering 8th grade in Texas.
  • There was an almost 10-point difference in the percentage of female students (29.5%) who earned a higher education credential compared to male students (19.9%) in the multi-year cohort.
  • Only 15.8% of the economically disadvantaged students in the 8th-grade cohort earned a credential from a Texas public institution within 11 years of entering 8th grade, as compared to 36.4% of students who were not categorized as economically disadvantaged in 8th grade.
  • Although there were almost 505K Hispanic students and Black students who were also economically disadvantaged (out of 1.08 million students) in the 8th-grade cohort, fewer than 47,000 (9.2%) of these historically underserved students (HUS) completed a bachelor’s degree from a Texas public institution within 11 years of entering 8th grade.
We have work to do.