Summary:
The two high schools in zip code 78245, Idea Mays College Preparatory and Alternative High School, serve vastly different student populations and educational missions within San Antonio, Texas, offering a clear contrast in approach and outcomes.
Idea Mays College Preparatory, part of the Idea Public Schools charter network, is a larger school with 748 students in grades 6-12. It serves a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students (70.19%) and has a student-teacher ratio of 17.3:1. However, the school is in a state of crisis, with its state ranking dropping from the 75th percentile to the 26th percentile over three years. Test scores in 2025-2026 are well below state averages in core subjects like Algebra I (18.03% proficient vs. 54.03% state) and Biology (43.44% vs. 70.51% state). The only bright spot is U.S. History, where it consistently outperforms the state (75.95% vs. 70.17% state). Its dropout rate of 2.1% is nearly double its district average.
In stark contrast, Alternative High School, part of the Northside Independent School District (Isd), is a small, specialized campus with only 159 students in grades 9-12. It achieves a perfect 0.0% dropout rate, far better than its district average of 0.9%. This success is driven by an extremely low student-teacher ratio of 5.6:1 and exceptionally high per-student spending of $134,204—over 12 times that of Idea Mays. While these two schools are not direct competitors due to their different missions, the data clearly shows that for at-risk students, the intensive, high-resource model at Alternative High School is working exceptionally well, while Idea Mays requires immediate intervention to reverse its declining academic performance.
Thank you for your feedback!