North East Independent School District (Isd)

The North East Independent School District (Isd) in San Antonio, Texas, serves 72 schools—including 46 elementary, 15 middle, and 11 high schools—and is ranked in the 57th percentile among Texas districts, performing slightly above the state average.

There is a clear performance divide within the district, strongly linked to socioeconomic factors. Top-tier schools like Reagan High School and Johnson High School consistently earn 5-star ratings with high test scores and graduation rates above 94%, while serving fewer than 24% of students on free/reduced lunch. In contrast, Roosevelt High School and Legacy Of Educational Excellence High School rank in the bottom 44% of Texas high schools, with graduation rates below 81% and dropout rates over 4.8%, serving more than 66% economically disadvantaged students. At the middle school level, Lopez Middle stands out as an exceptional performer, ranking in the top 4% of Texas middle schools with 87.87% of 8th graders proficient in Reading—27 points above the district average—while Larkspur Elementary and East Terrell Hills Elementary face significant challenges, ranking in the bottom 8% of elementary schools with free/reduced lunch rates above 88%.

Notably, per-student spending does not correlate with success: the highest-spending schools, such as Oak Grove Elementary ($13,251 per student) and Harmony Hills Elementary ($13,358), are among the lowest-performing, while top performers like Vineyard Ranch Elementary spend around $7,700 per student. The district also shows a consistent pipeline of success in northern, more affluent areas, where top elementary schools like Wilderness Oak Elementary feed into high-performing middle and high schools. Additionally, a common "middle school math slump" is observed across many schools, with 7th-grade math proficiency dropping significantly—for example, at Bradley Middle, it falls from 51.39% in 6th grade to just 19.88% in 7th grade.