Summary:
The Palacios Independent School District (Isd) is home to a single high school, Palacios Junior Senior High School, which serves grades 6 through 12 with a total enrollment of 655 students. This combined junior and senior high school serves a predominantly low-income community, with nearly 70% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, and has maintained a stable state ranking around the 44th percentile over the last three years.
Palacios Junior Senior High School shows a standout performance in U.S. History, consistently exceeding the state average on the STAAR EOC exam, with 72.78% of students proficient compared to the state's 70.17% in the most recent data. However, mathematics is a significant challenge, with proficiency rates dramatically lower than the state average across all tested grades—for example, only 16.95% of 7th graders were proficient in math versus the state's 29.41%. The school also boasts a strong graduation rate of 94.3% and a very low dropout rate of 0.7%, which contrasts sharply with the low math scores, suggesting students may be progressing through coursework without achieving grade-level proficiency in that subject.
Despite a low student-teacher ratio of 11.1:1 and relatively high spending of $14,591 per student, the school's overall academic performance has not improved over three years, raising questions about resource allocation. Reading performance is inconsistent, with the school slightly outperforming the state in 6th and 8th grade but falling behind in 7th grade and high school English exams. Science performance also varies, with 8th-grade science slightly above the state average but high school Biology significantly below it, indicating a potential breakdown in science education as students transition to high school. The success in U.S. History offers a potential model for improving other subjects.
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