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The Project for Equity, Representation, and Governance (PERG) seeks to apply its normative commitments to the goals of full and active democratic representation, equality across the spectrum of policy programs, and efficiency and efficacy in the full array of aspects of governance within a wide variety of public policy concerns. The substantive commitments of the Project for Equity, Representation, and Governance transcend our noted concern for educational parity among minority students, teachers, and administrators.

Six PERG undergraduate research assistants have accepted offers to attend graduate school. Angela Allison and Polly Calderon will join the PhD Political Science program to study public policy and continue their association with PERG. Phillip Hendrickson will pursue a PhD in Political Science with a focus in international relations at Florida State. Cindy Alvarado, Megan Mumford, and Hadley Smith will enroll in the Master of Public Service Administration at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Nathan Favero, PERG research assistant, received an honorable mention in the 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship competition.
Kenneth J. Meier received a 2013 Former Students Association Distinguished Service Award for graduate mentoring at the April 2013 awards ceremony.
Renita Miller has accepted a post-doctoral scholar position at Princeton University for the 2013-14 academic year.
Carla Flink, PhD candidate in political science and PERG research associate was recently awarded the 2012 MPSA Best Comparative Policy Paper Award for her work Strength of Fiscal Bureaucracy and Budget Changes.
K.Juree Capers, PhD candidate in political science and PERG research associate has accepted a tenure track assistant professor position with the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, for fall 2013. Ms. Capers is an expert on race and public policy and public management who studies education.
Nathan Favero and Ken Meier have a forthcoming article at Public Administration Review titled “Evaluating Urban Public Schools: Parents, Teachers, and State Assessments.”
Amanda Rutherford has a forthcoming article at The American Review of Public Administration titled “Organizational Turnaround and Educational Performance: The Impact of Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis Systems.”
Two PERG graduate research assistants presented research at international conferences during the fall 2012 semester. Tabitha Morton, a doctoral candidate, presented “Public Service Performance in Education: The Impact of Size, Delegation, and Coproduction” at the Sandberg Workshop on Coproduction, Delegation, and Size in Denmark in September. Amanda Rutherford presented “Organizational Turnaround and Educational Performance: The Impact of Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis Systems” at the “Improving Education through Accountability and Evaluation: Lessons from Around the World” conference in Rome, Italy in October.
Three PERG undergraduate research assistants have accepted fellowships to pursue work on a PhD in political science for fall 2012. Marlette Jackson will attend Stanford University and study comparative politics. Nathan Favero will attend Texas A&M University to study public administration/public policy. Kenicia Wright will attend the University of Houston to study public policy.
Carlos Holstein has won 1st place as Outstanding Diversity Undergrad for his submission to the Texas A&M University Student Research Week.
Marlette Jackson, PERG research assistant and senior political science major, has won an American Political Science Association minority graduate fellowship.
The Texas A&M Department of Political Science and The Project for Representation Equity, and Governance proudly hosted the 26th Politics of Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity Consortium on November 11, 2011.

Emergency Preparedness in Texas' School Districts in 2007

Carlos Cantu Project
The Cantu Project is funded through the Carlos H. Cantu Hispanic Education and Opportunity Endowment. Carlos Cantu, before his passing, endowed this fund to assist in the production of scholarly research that provides practical solutions to the Latino dropout problem. The project currently extends beyond education to study equity issues in health care, criminal justice, income, and other policy areas that affect equal education.

National Education Project
The Nation Education Project address issues of educational inequities for both Hispanics and African Americans. This project focuses on the use of academic grouping and disciplinary processes that result in an achievement gap between minority and Anglo school children. This study covers the 1800 largest school districts in the United States.

Public Management Research Project
Few scholars have studied public management in a systematic and quantitative way. This agenda uses sophisticated quantitative techniques to consider how management matters in the performance of public organizations. Specific focus is given to inter-organizational networking, turnover, political control, and issues of racial equity.

Higher Education Diversity Project
This study investigates the political and institutional factors that affect student and faculty diversity at American universities. Various parts of the study include questions relating to representation in state legislatures, and managing for diversity.

Public Health Project
The public health research project addresses issues of health disparities, equal access to healthcare resources and healthcare management at the state and local level. This project has created a survey dataset on American hospitals with a focus on how different healthcare organizations are managed.

Texas Educational Excellence Project
The Texas Education Excellence Project (TEEP) seeks to translate academic research into policy relevant information. This project focuses on original studies on the quality of education in Texas Schools.

Click here to access the 2012 Principal Management Survey results. For the results of previous waves of this survey, along with results of the Superintendent Management Survey, please visit the survey results section of our website.

As schools face substantial reductions in state aid for education, Texas principals weigh in on the effects that steep budget cuts have had in the past. Access the full press release entitled 2011 Budget Cuts in Create Problems in Schools According to Texas Principals.

Parent Evaluation in K-12 Schools

A recent study yields important insights into how parents evaluate the quality of a school. Studying New York City public schools, the researcher found evidence that parents collectively drew on several different sources of information when forming opinions about the general quality of their children’s schools.

Monitor Effectiveness in Texas Public Schools

A recent study finds third party monitors assigned to underperforming schools districts by Texas Education Agency (TEA) to have little to no effect on improving student performance.

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For general inquiries regarding PERG and its ongoing projects contact Kenneth J. Meier at kenneth-j-meier@pols.tamu.edu

The Project for Equity, Representation, and Governance

Department of Political Science

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX 77843-4348