Snapshot '99: 1998-99 School District Profiles provides a detailed look at public education in the State of Texas for the 1998-99 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 '99 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. An evaluation form, located just inside the front cover, provides an opportunity for readers to influence future editions.

Organization of This Book

Snapshot '99 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.

The opening narrative is followed by the predominant content of the book, Detailed Statistics. This section contains 87 different items of information for the state, regions within the state, and each of the 1,042 school districts in Texas. Information for the 61 charter schools operating in 1998-99 is also included. The 87 data items provide information on student demographics and performance, staff characteristics, and school district finances. This year two items have been dropped: the number of regular high schools and the five-year percent change in total students. Two items have been added: the longitudinal dropout rate and the completion rate. These new items are indicators that were reported on the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) in 1998-99.

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 statistical distributions of the 87 data 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, values for each of the 87 items are provided for every district and charter. This section is alphabetical by county name with districts listed alphabetically by name within each county. The 87 data items span six pages; therefore, a new set of districts is presented every sixth page. This year, the 1,042 independent school districts are listed first in the District Detail, and all charters follow in the Charter Detail. A row of totals has been added which aggregates the charter data. Two totals for the state are shown; one that excludes charter data and a grand total that includes charter data.

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 included in Snapshot; however, instructions regarding how to obtain school-level information are provided on the For Additional Information page.

Snapshot '99 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 information in the District Detail or Charter Detail by linking district name with the county name. One column in the District Listing shows the community type (urban, suburban, rural, etc.) associated with each district. Data for all districts of the same community type are aggregated and presented in the Detailed Statistics.

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. In 1998-99, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) collected a broad range of information on 1,103 districts/charters; 7,228 schools; almost 260,000 teachers; and over 3.9 million students through its Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). Testing contractors provide the agency with results of a number of standardized tests that are administered to public school students in Texas. Additionally, the Property Tax Division of the Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPTD) provides information on school district tax rates and property values.