Summary:
Zip code 79106 in Amarillo, Texas, is home to two middle schools serving grades 6-8: Crockett Middle and Houston Middle, both part of the Amarillo Independent School District (Isd).
These two schools present a stark contrast in performance and resources. Crockett Middle is a standout high-performing school, ranking in the top 22% of Texas middle schools (4 stars). Its students achieve significantly above district and state averages in reading and math, with an average reading proficiency of 64.1% and math proficiency of 51.9%. In contrast, Houston Middle ranks in the bottom 24% (1 star), with reading proficiency at 38.3% and math at 24.8%. Despite Houston Middle spending $11,867 per student—37% more than Crockett Middle's $8,671—its academic outcomes are much lower. This spending difference is partly due to a lower student-to-teacher ratio (12.8 vs. 16.9), but it has not closed the achievement gap.
A notable exception is in advanced coursework: both schools achieve near-perfect proficiency rates (over 96%) in Algebra I, showing that top students at each school are equally well-served. However, the overall performance gap is extreme—for example, in 7th grade math, Crockett Middle's proficiency rate was over four times higher than Houston Middle's. The data also shows a strong link between poverty and performance: Crockett Middle has a 42% free/reduced lunch rate, while Houston Middle has an 88% rate. Both schools have shown consistent rankings over the past three years, indicating these performance levels are stable trends rather than temporary fluctuations.
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