Summary:
The Denton Independent School District (Isd) is home to nine middle schools serving grades 6-8, and the performance across these schools reveals a district of stark contrasts, with two standout high-performers and several schools facing significant challenges.
The top performers are Harpool Middle and Crownover Middle. Harpool is the district's star, consistently ranking in the top 10% of Texas middle schools with a 5-star rating and test scores well above district and state averages. Crownover is a strong, consistent performer in the top 25% of the state with a 4-star rating. In contrast, Bettye Myers Middle is the lowest-ranked school, falling in the bottom 25% of Texas middle schools with a 1-star rating and the lowest test scores across nearly every subject. Strickland Middle and Rodriguez Middle also struggle, ranking in the bottom 30% of the state with 1-star ratings. A key metric is the free/reduced lunch percentage, which is low at Harpool (14.88%) and high at Strickland (65.69%), Calhoun Middle (64.79%), and Bettye Myers (62.03%), showing a strong link between economic disadvantage and lower performance.
One of the most interesting findings is that spending more per student does not guarantee success. Calhoun Middle spends the most ($13,123 per student) but ranks in the bottom third of the state, while Harpool spends less than the district average ($10,592) and is the top performer. Another fascinating anomaly is Algebra I proficiency, where every school dramatically outperforms state averages, including Bettye Myers with a 95.08% proficiency rate despite having the lowest overall math scores. This suggests the Algebra I exam is taken by a select group of advanced students. Overall, the district is split into two tiers: Harpool and Crownover as high-performing schools, and the remaining seven schools all performing below state averages, with several in the bottom 30% and facing significant challenges in math proficiency.
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