Summary:
This analysis examines 10 middle schools serving grades 6-8 within the Brownsville Independent School District (Isd), a district ranked in the 63rd percentile among Texas school districts and serving a predominantly low-income student population with an average free/reduced lunch rate of approximately 87.5%.
Stillman Middle stands out as the district's top performer, consistently ranking in the top 26% of Texas middle schools and achieving a 4-star rating for three consecutive years, all while having the lowest per-student spending ($9,510). In contrast, Vela Middle has shown the most dramatic improvement, jumping from the 48th to the 70th percentile in one year with a perfect 0.0% dropout rate. Several high-poverty schools, including Faulk Middle (96.27% poverty), Lucio Middle (99.68% poverty), and Perkins Middle (98.33% poverty), achieve near-perfect scores on advanced End-of-Course exams in Biology, Algebra I, and English I, demonstrating that exceptional achievement is possible despite significant socioeconomic challenges.
A critical district-wide crisis is the alarmingly low 7th-grade Math proficiency, with a district average of just 5.23% compared to the state average of 29.41%, and Manzano Middle recording a shocking 0% proficiency. Interestingly, higher spending does not correlate with better performance—Besteiro Middle has the highest spending ($15,086) but ranks in the bottom half, while Garcia Middle and Stell Middle also struggle with low state rankings. The student-teacher ratio averages 13.4:1, ranging from 11.9:1 at Oliveira Middle to 14.8:1 at Garcia Middle, and four schools (Vela, Lucio, Perkins, and Besteiro) maintain perfect 0.0% dropout rates, highlighting pockets of strong student retention across the district.
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