Lara Keel Texas Lobbyist News: Texas Tribune Launches Public School Database
The following story is a digest of information found at the Texas Tribune online. The Texas Lobby Group is making this feature of their website known as a public service for Texas educators, Texas politicians, Texas school boards, Texas lobbyists, and other interested parties.
Texas Tribune has compiled a remarkable database of statewide public school information. These resources on public schools include statistics and records on individual school districts and schools, providing a very useful and well organized gallery of numbers and write-ups. This pool of information includes everything a parent could ever want to know about the school their child is, or could possibly be, attending. Questions about enrollment? Teacher or academic performance? Financial information? College readiness? It’s all at your fingertips. Essentially any basic averages you could think of.
Following the “View Statewide Data” link, the database works comparable to any search engine. You can type the school or district name in the search bar, with the relative information popping up. According to the Texas Tribune, there are well over four million students enrolled in the Texas public school system. These numbers are quickly approaching five million. Detailed demographics are up for public review, providing a good at who our students are, and the circumstances that surround them. Interestingly, about 28% of the student population is Hispanic, and only 33% is White. There is also display detailing risk factors that students face, including economic problems and limited comprehension of English.
A better look at the problems that face the student population in Texas can provide better solutions for what to do to improve upon these issues. There is a great diversity throughout the state in almost every regard. Ethnically, economically, and the quality of Texas public schools and teachers can and does vary greatly. Dropout and completion rates are available, and illustrate a very real look at what your average student in Texas experiences. Less sobering factors such as average class size are available as well. There are statewide averages, regional averages, district averages, and individual school averages.
Texas leads the nation in many ways. We have top notch military and economic performances, but in education we lag behind other states and countries. Detailed demographics allow for a better understanding of the problems at hand, and what can be done to better them. There is a great deal of information present regarding teachers, providing averages of salaries, years of experience, and seniority.