SOUTH TEXAS ISD SCIENCE ACADEMY
MERCEDES · TX · SOUTH TEXAS ISD · Public
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SOUTH TEXAS ISD HEALTH PROFESSIONS → MERCEDES H S → LA FERIA EARLY COLLEGE H S → PROGRESO H S → EDCOUCH-ELSA H S → MERCEDES EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY → IDEA WESLACO PIKE COLLEGE PREPARATORY → MERCEDES DAEP →📋 At a glance
- 📚 22 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 13 calculus classes · 23 physics · 18 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 76th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 71th percentile by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How SOUTH TEXAS ISD SCIENCE ACADEMY compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 24% nationally with 22 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyTX students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: SOUTH TEXAS ISD HEALTH PROFESSIONS, MERCEDES H S, LA FERIA EARLY COLLEGE H S and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
76th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2171th percentile by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
The University of Texas at Austin
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $19,857/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +3.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 840 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $18,619 per student in district revenue, the 144 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $2,681,136/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOUTH TEXAS ISD HEALTH PROFESSIONS MERCEDES |
Public | 0.1 | 781 | +4.7% |
| MERCEDES H S MERCEDES |
Public | 2.3 | 903 | -10.3% |
| LA FERIA EARLY COLLEGE H S LA FERIA |
Public | 6.8 | 901 | +1.0% |
| PROGRESO H S PROGRESO |
Public | 4.2 | 431 | -6.7% |
| EDCOUCH-ELSA H S ELSA |
Public | 10.0 | 1,309 | +1.9% |
| MERCEDES EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY MERCEDES |
Public | 1.4 | 355 | -7.6% |
| IDEA WESLACO PIKE COLLEGE PREPARATORY WESLACO |
Public · charter | 2.6 | 364 | -3.2% |
| MERCEDES DAEP MERCEDES |
Public | 2.8 | — | — |