Desoto Independent School District (Isd)

The Desoto Independent School District (Isd) serves 10 schools in Texas, including two high schools, two middle schools, and six elementary schools, and is ranked in the 26th percentile statewide with a 1-star rating.

The district's standout is Katherine Johnson Technology Magnet Academy, the only school with a 4-star rating and test scores far exceeding both district and state averages—for example, 87.5% of its 8th graders were proficient in reading versus the district's 48%. In contrast, The Meadows Elementary and Frank D Moates Elementary have received 0-star ratings for three years, ranking in the bottom 8% of Texas elementary schools. The middle schools, Curtistene S McCowan Middle and Desoto West Middle, both rank in the bottom 15% but show a surprising strength in Algebra I, with over 80% proficiency among test-takers, despite only 5-6% proficiency in 7th-grade math. Woodridge Elementary is a bright spot, improving from a 0-star to a 2-star rating and rising from the 7th to the 44th percentile over five years.

Key metrics reveal a district with significant disparities. Per-student spending ranges from $8,973 at McCowan Middle to $11,289 at Cockrell Hill Elementary, but spending does not correlate with performance—Katherine Johnson spends less than average yet achieves the best results. The Desoto Alternative Education Center (Daep) is an extreme outlier with $418,594 per student due to its tiny enrollment of 19. Desoto High School has an 86.1% graduation rate and a 2.2% dropout rate, both below state averages. The district's free/reduced lunch rate averages 62.7%, ranging from 45.9% at Katherine Johnson to 78.5% at McCowan Middle, while student-teacher ratios average 18.7, from 15.6 at Frank D Moates to 22.6 at McCowan Middle.