Middle Schools in Dallas Independent School District (Isd)

The Dallas Independent School District (Isd) oversees 42 middle schools serving grades 6-8 across a diverse urban landscape, where a handful of elite magnet and academy programs achieve top-tier state rankings while the majority of neighborhood schools face significant academic challenges.

The district's standout performers are its specialized magnet and academy programs, which dominate the top of the state rankings. William B Travis Vanguard Academy Of Academically Tag ranks #2 in Texas, while Sudie L Williams Talented And Gifted Academy ranks #4, both achieving near-perfect test scores across all subjects. School For The Talented & Gifted In Pleasant Grove ranks #9 despite serving a student body where over 92% are economically disadvantaged, proving that high poverty does not preclude excellence. Other top performers include Rosemont Upper (#36), Henry W Longfellow Career Exploration Academy (#45), and Dallas Environmental Science Academy (#89). In stark contrast, schools like Boude Storey Middle (3rd percentile) and E B Comstock Middle (5th percentile) struggle with extremely low test scores and higher dropout rates. Some schools show promising improvement, such as D A Hulcy Steam Middle, which jumped from the 66th to 79th percentile and boasts a perfect Algebra I pass rate.

Mathematics proficiency emerges as a district-wide weakness, with many schools reporting 6th-grade math scores in the teens and twenties. However, an interesting anomaly appears with Algebra I: several low-performing schools like T W Browne Middle (94.74% pass rate) and Raul Quintanilla Senior Middle Steam Academy (92.86% pass rate) achieve high scores on this advanced exam, likely because only select students take it. Per-student spending shows no clear link to performance, as top schools like Longfellow ($9,932/student) spend less than struggling schools like T W Browne ($13,478/student). The district's socioeconomic divide is stark, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 13.68% at Williams to 100% at John Lewis Social Justice Academy At O W Holmes, and 30 of 42 schools having rates above 90%.