Decker Middle

Decker Middle in Austin, TX, serves 606 students in grades 6-8 within the Manor Independent School District (Isd), where over 80% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school has consistently ranked in the bottom 6% of Texas middle schools over the past five years.

Decker Middle faces significant academic challenges, with proficiency rates in core subjects critically low compared to state averages. For instance, only 10.31% of 6th graders were proficient in Reading versus the state's 53.52%, and just 7.18% were proficient in Math versus 38.57% statewide. However, a striking paradox emerges: students in advanced courses, such as 8th graders taking high school credit exams, perform exceptionally well. In Algebra I, 58.23% were proficient (above the state average of 47.01%), and in Biology, 63.49% were proficient (above the state's 62.04%). This suggests a "two-school" dynamic where a select group receives high-quality accelerated education while the majority struggle. Nearby KIPP Austin College Prep, serving an even higher percentage of low-income students (94.19%), achieves dramatically better results, with 48.57% proficiency in 7th-grade Math compared to Decker's 12.04%, showing that high poverty does not predetermine low achievement.

The school also has a high and volatile dropout rate of 2.4%, significantly higher than nearby schools like Dailey Middle (0.5%) and Manor New Technology Middle (0.6%). While Decker's per-pupil spending ($10,933) and low student-to-teacher ratio (12.6:1) are comparable to peers, these resources have not translated into strong outcomes for most students. The school's performance has stagnated or declined, with subgroups like "At Risk" students dropping from the 49th percentile in 2018-2019 to the 9th percentile in 2021-2022. For parents, the key takeaway is that Decker Middle urgently needs to improve core instruction for all students, not just those in advanced tracks, to address this deep and persistent achievement gap.