Summary:
The city of Santa Maria, Texas is home to 4 schools serving students from elementary through high school, including 1 elementary school, 1 middle school, and 2 high schools (one of which is an alternative school). The schools in this district face significant challenges, with stark disparities in academic performance and a predominantly low-income student population.
Tony Gonzalez Elementary stands out for its relatively strong performance in reading, but struggles in math and science, with 5th-grade students scoring well below the state averages in those subjects. In contrast, Santa Maria High School has a relatively high 4-year graduation rate, but its performance on STAAR end-of-course exams is generally below the state averages, particularly in Algebra I and English I/II. The Santa Maria Academic Academy-Options Campus (6-12), an alternative high school, has consistently ranked among the lowest-performing high schools in the state, despite its high graduation rate and low student-teacher ratio.
Across the Santa Maria Independent School District (Isd), the schools have very high percentages of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 97.16% to 99.57%, indicating a high-need student population. The district as a whole is ranked 715 out of 961 districts in Texas and is rated 1 out of 5 stars by SchoolDigger, suggesting the need for targeted interventions and support to improve educational outcomes for the students of Santa Maria.
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