Monte Alto Independent School District (Isd)

The Monte Alto Independent School District (Isd) is a small, rural district in Texas serving approximately 819 students across three schools: Roberto Garate Elementary, Jose Borrego Middle, and Monte Alto High School. The district faces significant academic challenges, ranking in the 22nd percentile among Texas districts, with a very high percentage of students (around 84%) qualifying for free or reduced lunch.

Among the schools, Monte Alto High School stands out for its positive trajectory, showing a consistently improving state rank over the last three years. It demonstrated a dramatic turnaround in Algebra I, with proficiency jumping 35 points to slightly above the state average, and it performs well in U.S. History. In contrast, Jose Borrego Middle presents a stark contrast: it is the only campus to outperform the state in a core subject (7th Grade Reading), yet it also has the district's lowest scores in 8th Grade Math (10.53% proficient) and Social Studies (7.25% proficient). Roberto Garate Elementary is the largest school and faces the most consistent challenges, with no significant improvement in its state ranking and the widest gaps compared to state averages, especially in mathematics.

A key takeaway is that reading is a relative strength across the district, while mathematics is a systemic weakness that becomes severe in middle school—a "middle school math cliff." Interestingly, spending per student does not correlate with performance; the high school spends the most ($14,828) yet still underperforms in many subjects, while the elementary school spends the least ($10,617). The high school maintains a positive graduation rate of 91.4%, and a notable "7th grade bump" at the middle school suggests a particularly effective teaching team or cohort that warrants further investigation.