In a Texas District, Test Scores For Minority Students Have Soared

By Robert C. Johnston

Aldine, Texas

Five years ago, the passing rates on state tests for students in this sprawling working-class suburb of Houston were separated by chasms of 30 points or more. Whites were at the top. Black and Hispanic students were at the bottom.

Today, those lines are converging on a point at which many black, Hispanic, and white students perform at or near the same academic levels—a rare occurrence in U.S. education. That goal has been reached in some Aldine schools, where black and Hispanic students outperform white peers statewide.

Overall, the most recent tests in grades 3-8 and 10 put Aldine's African-American students 14 points behind the district's whites, and its Hispanics at 11 points back. That's still a big gap, but the disparities are smaller than they are statewide, and Aldine's gaps in the early grades are mostly...