How San Antonio’s biggest school districts’ STAAR test scores compare to state averages

SAN ANTONIO – Data released Friday showed Texas students’ math and science scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness continue to slip since the pandemic.

The Texas Education Agency breaks the scores down by district and by campus. They’re searchable on the TEA website.

The scores are broken down into four categories: did not meet (the academic standard), approaches and above, meets and above, and masters.

We looked at San Antonio’s three largest districts to see how their scores compared to the state averages.

Math Scores

Grades 3-8 took the math portion of the STAAR test.

State averages across those grades show that 32.5% failed to meet the standard, 40.6% met or exceeded the grade level standard and 15.5% mastered it.

Here’s how San Antonio’s largest three districts compare:

NEISD: 32.5% failed to meet the standard, 39.8% met or exceeded and 14.6% mastered.

NISD: 35.8% failed to meet the standard, 35.3% met or exceeded and 11.2% mastered. Seventh graders really dropped off with 61% failing and only 1% mastering.

SAISD: 55.6% failed to meet the standard, 19.5% met or exceeded and only 5.5% mastered. Seventh graders fared the worst in the district with 74% failing to meet the grade-level standard.

Science

Fifth and eighth graders across the state took the Science portion of the STAAR.

Eighth graders performed better than fifth graders did. Twenty-six percent of fifth graders across the state met or exceeded the grade-level standard and 43% did not meet it. For eighth graders, 42% met or exceeded the standard and 32% did not.

NEISD performed better than the state averages with 33% of the district’s fifth-graders meeting or exceeding the standard and 36% failing.

NEISD’s eighth-graders did even better with 50% meeting or exceeding the standard and 25% failing.

NISD’s fifth graders fell a bit below state averages with 21% of fifth graders at or exceeding the standard and 46% failing.

The district’s eighth graders fared better with 45% meeting or exceeding the standard and 28% failing.

SAISD was below the state averages for both fifth and eighth graders. Just 10% of fifth graders met or exceeded the standard and 66% failed. Among eighth-grade testers, 19% met or exceeded the standard and 58% failed.

Reading

Grades 3-8 took the reading portion of the STAAR test across the state.

Averaging across the grade levels, 52.3% met or exceeded the grade level standard, 25.6% mastered it while 23.3% failed.

NEISD outperformed the state average with 57% meeting or exceeding the grade-level standard, 29.5% mastering it and 20% failing.

NISD was just below the state average with 51.7% meeting or exceeding the grade-level standard, 23.3% mastering it and 22.8% failing.

SAISD had 33.3% of students meeting or exceeding the grade-level standard, 12.3% mastering it and 41% failing.

Social Studies

The social studies portion of the STAAR test was given to eighth graders in Texas. Across the state, 31% of students met or were above the grade-level standard for social studies with 16% mastering the subject. Forty-three percent failed to meet the standard.

NEISD and NISD students’ scores were very similar to each other. They were both above the state averages with fewer failing and more students who mastered.

SAISD students, however, performed significantly worse than the state average with just 11% meeting or exceeding grade level standards and 69% failing to meet the standard.