Summary:
Zip code 75670 in Marshall, TX, is home to two high schools within the Marshall Independent School District (Isd), serving grades 8 through 12 with a combined enrollment of over 1,500 students in a community where the majority of students face economic disadvantages.
Marshall High School is the area's primary comprehensive high school, enrolling 1,467 students and performing in the 23rd percentile statewide. While its academic scores fall below state averages, it significantly outperforms the alternative school in every category, with a graduation rate of 85.6% and a dropout rate of just 1.7%. Its strongest subject is English II Reading (54.85% proficient), but Algebra I remains a critical weakness at only 12.83% proficiency. In contrast, Marshall Early Graduation School serves just 71 highly at-risk students and is in the bottom 4% of Texas high schools. Despite spending $11,447 per student (nearly $800 more than Marshall High) and maintaining a lower student-teacher ratio of 11.2:1, it posts a 63.3% graduation rate and a staggering 13.4% dropout rate—nearly eight times higher than its counterpart. Test scores are critically low, with 0% proficiency in English I Reading and only 8.33% in Algebra I.
The most striking takeaway is the "Algebra I Wall" affecting both schools, with proficiency rates far below the state average of 54.03%, indicating a systemic math instruction failure across the district. Additionally, Marshall High shows a concerning year-over-year decline, dropping from the 26th to the 23rd percentile, while the Early Graduation School's name contradicts its outcomes—it is failing to graduate a significant portion of its students. The district's intervention strategies for its most vulnerable students appear ineffective, as higher spending and smaller classes have not translated into better results.
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