Press Release
"The Best School Districts in Texas for Latino Students 1996-1999."
The future looks brighter for Latino students in many Texas school districts. Statewide, from 1996-1999, Latino students made impressive gains on the TAAS pass rate. In 1996, Latino students averaged a 54.2% pass rate compared to a 70.1% rate in 1999. Additionally, Latino students continue to narrow the gap with Anglo students in terms of TAAS pass rates, reducing it by more than 30% in these four years. A recent report from the Texas Educational Excellence Project has identified the school districts that did best in educating Latino students in 1996-1999. Among the top ranked districts were Los Fresnos, Pittsburg, Anahuac and Mount Vernon. South Texas, Ferris and Brazosport were also among the top rated districts.
"The Texas Educational Excellence Project was created to analyze educational policy and outcomes in Texas, with a special focus on minority students. A statistical technique known as multiple regression is used to identify school districts that do a better job of educating Latino students," said Kenneth J. Meier, Coordinator of the project and Charles Puryear Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. "We analyze student performance as a function of inputs into the educational process such as operating expenditures, student-teacher ratios, and various educational policies," said Meier. "Based on the results of this model, we compare how well districts actually perform to how well the statistical model predicts they should perform," said Nick Theobald, Research Associate with TEEP. According to Theobald, "The difference, if any, indicates how well districts are doing in educating Latino students."
J. L. Polinard of the University of Texas-Pan American, Research Associate of TEEP, said, "As an illustration, the model predicted that the Aldine School district, would have an average Latino pass rate of 63.52% from 1996-1999 while the district had an actual pass rate of 74.93%, a 11.41 percentage point improvement over the prediction." Based on this method, the top ranked school district for Latino students in Texas was Los Fresnos Consolidated with a rating of +17.41 percent, followed by Pittsburg with a +15.88 score and Anahuac with a +15.32 score.
According to Professor Meier, the Los Fresnos district attributes much of their success to the way the teachers, staff and parents work together. A special focus has been on the continued development of aligned curricula for the entire district.
Dr. Polinard noted that, "While Los Fresnos is a relatively small school and their actions might not necessarily be functional in a large district, several large urban schools also get dramatic results." Among these districts is Brazosport ISD, which improved their pass rate for Latino students from 73.3 in 1996 to 88.1 percent in 1999. Bothe attributed part of this increase to activities developed by the district to focus on student performance. Other large schools that rank highly are Aldine, Mission Consolidated, Yselta and Weslaco.
Theobald said, "Educational excellence should be transportable. These high-performing districts can serve as role models for other districts in Texas. With the identification of the consistently high-performing districts, a selection of educational leadership is available to other Texas districts." The top-ranked districts have a wide variety of programs for early diagnosis, curriculum coordination and parental involvement, according to Theobald. He said, "If specific programs and performances are identified, then they can be transferred to other districts in the state and Latino students overall will benefit."
Meier also singled out the Ferris school district for special mention. "Ferris is an example of a district that performs very well for both black and Latino students. In our recent analysis of black student performance, Ferris ranked third, while for Latino students it ranks sixth, an impressive performance."
To see the entire report including all ranked school districts, visit the TEEP web site www-bushschool.tamu.edu/kmeier/teep/
For further information contact Nick Theobald 979-458-0104 email:
or in South Texas J.L. Polinard 956-381-3341
The Texas Educational Excellence Project (TEEP) is a joint program of the George Bush School of Public Service and the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University. It also has research associates at the University of Texas-Pan American, Rice University, and Oakland University. TEEP seeks to apply scholarly research to educational policy issues in order to make recommendations for greater quality and equity in Texas school systems.
35 Best Districts for Latino Students 1996-99
SCORE 99 SCORE AVERAGE
1 Los Fresnos Consolidated 17.41 15.00 84.15
2 Pittsburg 15.88 15.69 75.50
3 Anahuac 15.32 16.85 77.93
4 Mount Vernon 14.26 13.09 80.50
5 South Texas 14.09 8.26 90.93
6 Ferris 13.79 14.55 76.43
7 Brazosport 13.70 10.58 83.10
8 San Benito Consolidated 13.24 9.02 74.20
9 TulosoMidway 12.43 12.34 73.20
10 White Settlement 12.25 6.06 78.20
11 Terrell 11.93 14.54 76.73
12 Del Valle 11.72 11.56 69.85
13 Aldine 11.41 8.25 74.93
14 Texas City 11.32 9.04 75.82
15 Point Isabel 11.24 10.11 73.95
16 McGregor 10.93 9.75 80.18
17 Coleman 10.55 17.93 74.90
18 Mission Consolidated 10.25 7.03 77.00
19 ColumbiaBrazoria 10.04 9.11 77.02
20 MonahansWickettPyo 9.95 11.71 75.43
21 Angleton 9.53 12.74 79.78
22 Ysleta 9.51 9.55 73.77
23 Alvarado 9.20 7.69 71.05
24 Pearland 9.01 7.95 79.65
25 La Feria 8.84 10.89 75.85
26 Crowley 8.78 6.43 81.50
27 Kaufman 8.36 9.83 69.28
28 Plainview 8.35 9.06 70.60
29 Royse City 8.34 12.16 75.30
30 Mexia 8.30 11.05 71.00
31 Bishop Consolidated 8.25 15.94 72.78
32 Edna 8.17 1.58 72.93
33 Hidalgo 8.16 8.34 70.78
34 Breckenridge 8.07 9.42 71.45
35 Weslaco 8.00 5.86 73.68