Summary:
The five public schools in the Canutillo Independent School District (Isd) in Canutillo, Texas, serve students from elementary through middle school, with a high level of economic disadvantage across the district.
Canutillo Elementary stands out as the top-performing elementary school, earning a 4-star rating and showing strong improvement, particularly in bilingual education where it outperforms the state in Spanish-language assessments. Jose J Alderete Middle is the academic leader among middle schools, excelling in advanced coursework like Algebra I and English I Reading. In contrast, Canutillo Middle has experienced a significant decline in its state ranking, dropping 22 percentile points over three years. Deanna Davenport Elementary faces the greatest challenges, with the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students and the lowest academic performance, despite having the highest per-student spending and smallest class sizes. Jose H Damian Elementary performs in the middle range, with a state ranking percentile of 49th.
Key takeaways include a district-wide challenge in mathematics, where proficiency is consistently lower than reading across all schools. The "resource paradox" at Deanna Davenport Elementary suggests that high investment has not yet translated into academic gains, likely due to overwhelming economic disadvantage. The divergent paths of the two middle schools—one stable and high-performing, the other in decline—highlight that factors beyond demographics, such as leadership or school culture, are driving performance gaps. Both middle schools report a 0.0% dropout rate, which is better than the district average.
Thank you for your feedback!