Patterns of school performance and expenditures among elementary and middle schools in 90 of Texas’ largest school districts

The pair of interactive graphs that are presented by selecting Item 2 on the left display data representing 3,453 elementary and middle schools which are members of 90 of Texas’ largest school districts. The data, relating to the 2017-2018 school year, are used to address the following questions:

1. How do the patterns of STAAR test score performance versus percent of economically disadvantaged students vary among elementary and middle schools in these 90 large districts?

2. How do expenditures per pupil vary between higher-poverty and lower-poverty schools within these 90 districts?

3. How much does per pupil spending for schools with at least 70 percent economically disadvantaged students vary across the 90 large districts?

The following figure gives an indication of the types of different performance patterns exhibited by the elementary and middle schools in 4 different districts. The light gray dots each represents a school in the other 86 districts.

These questions are explored in the two papers which are linked to on the left, namely Item 8: and Item 9:

The brief instructions contained in Items 3 through 6 should enable viewers to begin interacting with the graphs and data to explore these or other questions on their own.

Note that the two buttons beneath the data area—LHG and RHG—permit putting different graph layouts into each picture area. These and other options are described more fully in the Instructions and Examples that are linked to beneath the data table in the graphics page.

Questions and feedback are welcomed. I can be reached at ltoenjes@aol.com .

Larry Toenjes

Clear Lake Shores, TX