Summary:
The Southwest Public Schools district in Texas has only one middle school, Discovery Middle, which serves a predominantly Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged student population. While the school's academic performance, as measured by STAAR test scores, is consistently below state and district averages across multiple subjects, it does show a relative strength in Algebra I end-of-course exam performance.
Discovery Middle's student population is 90.87% Hispanic, with smaller percentages of African American (7.6%) and White (1.52%) students. The school has a high percentage (96.2%) of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a socioeconomically disadvantaged student body. Academically, the school's STAAR proficiency rates range from 30.49% to 38.27% in Reading and 16.67% to 21.67% in Mathematics, significantly lower than the state averages. However, the school's Algebra I end-of-course exam performance, with 61.9% of students proficient or better, is relatively stronger compared to the state average of 44.73%.
Despite the school's academic challenges, it has a relatively high per-student spending of $15,068 and a student-teacher ratio of 15.7, which is within a reasonable range for a middle school. The persistent underperformance on STAAR assessments and the high percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students suggest the need for targeted interventions and support to address the unique needs of the student population. The school's relative strength in Algebra I could provide insights into effective instructional strategies that could be applied to other subject areas.
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