The role of a skilled workforce in maintaining regional and global competitiveness is being emphasized by regional and local policymakers . At the state level , the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has initiated a plan , called 60x30TX , with a goal that at least 60 percent of Texans ages 25-34 will have a certificate or college degree by 2030 .
Locally , the City of Corpus Christi and the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce have adopted similar action plans to improve the area ’ s overall educational attainment level and marketable skills .
This article is an excerpt from a recent study at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi . The study provides an overview of the local education system with background data that aim at assisting local stakeholders ’ decision-making in the current community-wide educational initiative .
ECONOMIC STATUS
The city of Corpus Christi consists of six Independent School Districts ( ISDs ): Calallen ISD , Corpus Christi ISD , Flour Bluff ISD , London ISD , Tuloso-Midway ISD , and West Oso ISD . Across these six school districts , 57 % of the student population obtains the Economically Disadvantaged ( ED ) status . These students are highly concentrated in certain schools . The share of this socioeconomic group ranges from 92 % in West Oso ISD to 9.4 % in London ISD .
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Performance disparities across ISDs are consistent across different subjects and over time since the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness ( STAAR ) program ’ s inception in 2012 . The overall percentages of area students who pass the Reading or Mathematics tests are on par with the statewide averages .
Improvements are evident at higher grade levels . For instance , 71 % of third grade students in the area passed the Reading test in 2016 , and 77 % of them passed the Math test . The percentages of students passing the test rose to 78 % and 85 %, respectively , for Grade 5 . The percentage of students passing the Reading test improved further to 82 %, but the percentage of students passing the Math test dropped to 71 %.
Compared with the overall student population , the percentages of Economically Disadvantaged students passing these standardized tests are about 5 percentage points lower . Among individual ISDs , Calallen and London ISDs have the highest percentages of students who pass either the Reading or Math test , whereas West Oso ISD has the lowest percentage . For instance , slightly less than 90 % of third grade students in Calallen and London ISDs passed the Reading or Math test in 2016 . For West Oso ISD , only 54 % of third grade students passed the Reading test and 71 % of them passed the Math test .
Disparities in academic assessment results persist at higher grade levels . By the end of Grade 8 , more than 94 % of students in London and Calallen ISDs pass the Math test , whereas 64 % of students in West Oso ISD pass the same test . The percentage of Corpus Christi ISD students passing the Math test is close to West Oso ISD ’ s .
Academic performance varies remarkably across major ethnic / race groups . Asian students tend to score the highest in both Reading and Math tests , whereas African American students tend to score the lowest . More than 95 % of Asians in any of the three testing grades pass either the Reading or Math test . By contrast , the percentage of African-American students passing either test is at least 5 percentage points below the area average .
Within a given ethnic / race group , the percentage of students passing the STAAR tests is typically higher in schools with overall better performance records and lower in schools
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