Slate, John R2024-05-132024-05-132024-052024-05May 2024https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/4433The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the extent to which differences existed in the attainment of Texas Education Agency approved industry-based certifications of Texas high school graduates by their ethnicity/race, gender, and economic status. In the first study, the degree to which the attainment of Texas Education Agency approved industry-based certifications of Texas high school graduates differed by their ethnicity/race (i.e., Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian) was examined. In the second study, the degree to which attainment of Texas Education Agency approved industry-based certifications differed between high school boys and girls was determined. In the third study, the extent to which economic status (i.e., Poor, Not Poor) was related to attainment of Texas Education Agency approved industry-based certifications of high school graduates was ascertained. Finally, the presence of trends in student attainment of Texas Education Agency approved industry-based certifications was addressed. A causal-comparative non-experimental research design was employed to complete this statewide, multiyear study. Archival data analyzed were made publicly available by the Texas Education Agency through the Texas Academic Performance Reports. Specifically analyzed were industry-based certification attainment rates for Texas high school graduates from the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2020-2021 school years. Regarding ethnicity/race, Black and Asian students were identified to have statistically significantly lower industry-based certification attainment rates than Hispanic and White students. Certification attainment rates for Black and Asian students were similar across the three years of data analyzed, whereas attainment rates for Hispanic and White students were also similar. For gender, male Texas high school graduates had statistically significantly higher industry-based certification attainment rates than female Texas high school graduates across the three years of data analyzed, with the gap in attainment between genders increasing across the years studied. Regarding economic status, students from impoverished backgrounds earned industry-based certifications at statistically significantly lower rates than their non-economically disadvantaged peers. It should be noted, however, that attainment rates between the two groups only differed by 0.54% to 1.41% over the three years of data analyzed. A final observation was that industry-based certifications increased across the three years of data analyzed for all student groups.application/pdfEnglishCollege, Career, and Military Readiness; Post-Secondary Readiness; Industry-Based CertificationsThesis2024-05-13