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School survey shows Texas has plenty of room for improvement

WalletHub Study
Friday, August 3, 2018

Texas schools aren’t the worst in the nation, but there is plenty of room for improvement, according to a report on the quality and safety of schools across the country. In the report, from personal finance website WalletHub, Texas ranked 36th overall — well above its neighbors New Mexico and Louisiana, which ranked 50th and 51st, respectively. 

WalletHub’s rankings were based on numerous criteria, including the number of schools listed in U.S. News and World Report’s top 700 schools, the number of Blue Ribbon campuses, graduation rates among economically disadvantaged students, college admissions test scores, other test scores and dropout rates. WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Education, National Conference of State Legislatures, U.S. News and World Report, the College Board and ACT.

Texas ranked 48th in median SAT score — but 25th in median ACT score — among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in 2017 Texas’ average critical reading score on the SAT was 470, compared to the nationwide average of 495. The state’s average SAT math score was 486 while the U.S. average was 511. Texas’ average writing score was 454 compared to the U.S. average of 484. Texas also had a higher percentage of students who took the SAT than the national percentage — 64 percent to 52. The average ACT composite score for Texas public and nonpublic students was 20.9 for the class of 2015; nationwide, the average composite score was 21.0. Texas students scored higher, on average, on the math and science portions of the ACT but lower in English and Reading, the TEA reports. 

Texas ranked 5th in dropout rate, according to the WalletHub study. According to the Texas Education Agency, the overall dropout rate for the 2015-2016 school year for grades 7-12 was 1.4 percent. 

The dropout rate for the San Marcos CISD that year matched the state’s. 

As far as school safety, the WalletHub study ranks Texas 16th in the rate of bullying incidents and 31st in the percentage of threatened or injured high school students. 

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and other sources, WalletHub ranked Massachusetts as having the lowest percentage of threatened or injured high school students and Louisiana as having the highest. Washington, D.C., had the lowest incidence of bullying, and Arkansas had the highest in the WalletHub study. 

TEA had no data on bullying or threats, but a discipline report shows that in the 2015-2016 school year, 3,824 students statewide were expelled, 480,878 received in-school suspension and 232,399 were suspended out of school. Another 73,432 were removed to a disciplinary alternative educational facility. 

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666