Summary:
Zip code 78214 in San Antonio, Texas, is home to two high schools within the Harlandale Independent School District (Isd), serving grades 9-12 in a community where a high percentage of students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The standout school in this area is Harlandale Independent School District (Isd) Stem Echs-Alamo Colleges At Pac, a smaller specialized early college high school with 393 students. It ranks in the 85th percentile statewide, boasts a perfect 100% graduation rate, and achieves proficiency rates far above the state average in Biology (89.69%), English I Reading (77.14%), and English II Reading (86.17%). In stark contrast, Harlandale High School is a much larger traditional school with 1,652 students, ranking in the 18th percentile with an 88% graduation rate and test scores well below state averages. The STEM ECHS achieves these results despite a higher student-to-teacher ratio (24.6:1) and lower per-student spending ($8,735) compared to Harlandale High School (15:1 and $12,039), highlighting the power of its specialized school model.
A key takeaway is the dramatic performance gap between these two schools within the same district. While the STEM ECHS excels in core academics, it has a surprisingly low Algebra I proficiency rate (25%), even below Harlandale High School's 29.87% and the state average of 54.03%. Harlandale High School has consistently ranked in the bottom 20% of Texas high schools for three years, indicating systemic challenges. The success of the STEM ECHS, which serves a similarly high-poverty population (73.54% free/reduced lunch), demonstrates that high achievement is possible, making the underperformance of Harlandale High School a significant concern for parents evaluating options in this zip code.
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