Is the best way to improve school performance

to reduce the number of low-income students?

While the primary purpose of this section is to comment on aspects of elementary and middle school performance of schools in Austin ISD, inevitably broader considerations are raised. As you will see, Austin, perhaps more than any other major city in Texas, displays very clear evidence of an ongoing gentrification process in its central city region. This process manifests itself in the demographics of the city as a whole, but it is especially apparent among a dozen elementary and middle schools right in the middle of the district.

Those 12 schools are highlighted in blue in the following exhibit. The graph on the left shows where they are located within the entire district. The graph on the right is a little trickier. It shows that these schools had relatively high percentages of low-income students in 2004, measured on the horizonal axis, but exhibited much lower such percentages in 2024, measured on the vertical axis. The data beneath the graphs indicate that the low-income percentages for these 12 schools declined from 62% in 2004 to 27% in 2024. Poverty reductions such as these are very rare in Texas. Since 1995, the statewide percentage of elementary and middle school

Elementary and middle schools in Austin ISD

students who were eligible for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program rose from 46% to 62%.

Because many family characteristics are related to low-income status, such as parental education, early learning opportunities for children, poor health care, single parent families, the growth in the percentage of low-income families in Texas definitely increases the burdens on schools to demonstrate improvements in academic achievement.

The K-12 accountability system in Texas sometimes appears to be based on the notion that mere testing and public notification of poor academic performance will overcome alleged failures of administrators and teachers and will require little in the way of increased resources. The following exhibit clearly demonstrates that as the percentage of low-income students in schools increase, test-scores decrease.

Texas elementary and middle schools

Returning to elementary and middle schools in Austin ISD, the following exhibit, in both the graphs and the data in the table beneath the graphs, shows that the test results in those 12 schools which have experience drastic reductions in their percentages of low-income students have also demonstrated somewhat remarkable improvements in test results over the period 2017 to 2024.

Austin elementary and middle schools

At the left side of your screen you will see to links that will allow you to download additional graphs (Item8), in the form of a PowerPoint display, and commentary on the graphs (Item 9).