An analysis of the effects of teacher assignment in the Houston Independent School District on student academic achievement

The Singleton Ratio is a court ordered plan requiring the racial makeup of certified employees and teacher aides in every school of a district to roughly represent the racial characteristics of those employees district wide. The ongoing educational process between determinants of student achievement and student achievement outcomes is the avenue through which the Singleton Ratio process may affect student achievement. Faculty desegregation has impacted certain determinants of student academic achievement (e.g., teaching experience of faculty members, the degree of similarity between the ethnic backgrounds of students and teachers). The resulting changes in these determinants of student achievement have, it is alleged by critics of the faculty desegregation policy, tended to lower student and teacher commitment to the educational attainment of students. As a result of lowered commitment among students and teachers, it is further charged that the academic achievement outcomes of students have been lowered. A model has been developed in order to analyze the theoretical process described above. The model considers several determinants of student academic achievement which have been affected by the Singleton Ratio process and observable indicators of student commitment, teacher commitment and student academic achievement. The results of measuring the strengths of the relationships within the model suggest that the Singleton Ratio process has not affected student academic achievement in the elementary grades of the Houston Independent School District.