Corsicana Middle

Corsicana Middle serves 857 students in grades 7 and 8 within the Corsicana Independent School District (Isd), a district ranked in the 16th percentile statewide, and is located in a community where over 80% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

This school presents a striking "two-schools" picture. On one hand, a select group of students taking Algebra I achieves exceptional results, with an 88.24% proficiency rate on the End-of-Course exam—far exceeding the state average of 54.03%. On the other hand, the vast majority of students in standard classes struggle significantly. Only 16.45% of 8th graders are proficient in math, a rate dramatically lower than nearby Blooming Grove Jh (48.61%) and Rice Intermediate/Middle School (43.9%). Similarly, 8th-grade social studies proficiency sits at just 12.04%. This gap between advanced and general education tracks creates a misleading average and masks the depth of the challenge for most students.

There are some bright spots. Reading scores in both 7th and 8th grade are much closer to the state average than math scores, and the school maintains a very low dropout rate of 0.6%, suggesting it is effective at keeping students engaged. However, recent data shows a troubling decline in support for key groups. The school’s ranking for African American students dropped from the 21st percentile to the 4th percentile in one year, and support for special education students fell from the 50th to the 9th percentile. While Rice Intermediate/Middle School achieves better results with a lower per-student spending ($9,301 vs. $9,909), Corsicana’s challenges suggest the issue is less about funding and more about how resources and instructional strategies are allocated.