Snapshot '97: 1996-97 School District Profiles provides a detailed look at public education in the state of Texas for the 1996-97 school year. Reflecting the diversity and vastness of the state, school districts in Texas vary widely on almost all measured characteristics: size, wealth, ethnic composition, and academic achievement. Snapshot '97 provides readers with the basic information needed to examine these differences and to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of public school districts in Texas.

Published annually since 1987-88, Snapshot presents a broad range of information in a consistent format from year to year. Occasionally, items are added or modified, often as a result of reader input.

Organization of this Book

Snapshot '97 begins with Statistical Highlights, an overview of education at the state level. The Highlights explain how the public education system in Texas is organized; describe student, staff, and financial characteristics; and provide other statistics for many aspects of public schools. This section focuses on the current year but also describes historical trends.

This opening narrative is followed by Detailed Statistics. This section contains 87 different items of information for the state, regions within the state, and each of the 1,043 school districts in Texas. Information for the 16 newly formed charter schools is also included. The 87 items provide information on student demographics and performance, staff characteristics, and school district finances.

In the first part of the Detailed Statistics, summary tables show districts and charters categorized by size, by community type, by tax effort, by property wealth per pupil, and by Education Service Center (ESC) region. The summary tables conclude with distributions of the 87 items showing their highest, lowest, and median values, along with values at the 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles.

In the next part of the Detailed Statistics, information on the 87 items is provided for every district and charter school. This section, District Detail, is alphabetical by county name with districts listed alphabetically by name within each county. The 87 items span six pages; therefore, a new set of districts is presented every sixth page.

Information found in the Detailed Statistics can be viewed and downloaded from the agency's website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport. School-level data are not provided in Snapshot. For instructions regarding how to obtain school-level information, refer to the For Additional Information section.

Snapshot '97 concludes with five appendices. Definitions for the 87 data items are listed in order by item number in the Item Definitions appendix. A selected list of bibliographic sources follows in the second appendix, Bibliography. The third appendix, Data Sources, lists the sources of data in alphabetical order by the abbreviated labels used throughout the document. Each major source of data is described and accompanied by a listing of associated data items and exhibits.

Endnotes, the fourth appendix, is intended to clarify terms that are not thoroughly addressed in other parts of the document. The final appendix, District Listing, lists school districts in alphabetical order by name to help readers locate a particular district in the District Detail by relating the district name to the appropriate county.

Overview of Data Sources

The level of detail provided in Snapshot is possible due to the extensive amount of public school data collected in Texas. Through its Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), the Texas Education Agency (TEA) annually collects a broad range of information on its 1,059 districts/charters, 6,900 schools, 248,000 educators, and 3.8 million students. Testing contractors provide the agency with scores on a number of standardized tests which are administered to public school students in Texas (i.e., TAAS, SAT I, ACT, AP, and TASP). Additionally, the Property Tax Division of the Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPTD) provides information on tax rates and property values.