South+Texas+Academy+of+Medical+Technology+San+Benito,+Texas

Status: NOT a miracle school Main Reasons: High attrition. http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/21/ten-miracle-high-schools/south-texas-academy-of-medical-technology-san-benito-texas.html

Texas seems to be a haven for "miracle schools" with two of the six Texas schools contained in the only Independent School District (ISD) in Texas made up of only Magnet Schools. As most readers are aware, Magnet Schools are nearly always high performing schools drawing their small populations from much larger groups of students. For example, this [|South Texas Independent School District] draws students from three counties and 28 school districts.

In spite of being a Magnet School, with a separate application process with specific timing requirements, no paper applications, and mandatory attendance at summer programs prior to students becoming fully enrolled, South Texas Academy of Medical Technology graduated only 51 of the 113 students who started in the ninth grade four years earlier. As students transition out of the school, for whatever reasons, we are probably accurate in asserting that the remainder are the more successful students, which certainly helps to maintain the high quality of the school's graduating class. The South Texas Academy of Medical Professions, while having a higher graduation rate than the Academy of Medical Technology, shares a couple of key characteristics with other schools in this unusual district. Located along the Rio Grande only miles from the border with Mexico, both schools have very small percentages of "limited English proficient" (LEP) students and students qualifying for special education services. Again, there is a clear sense that the schools are attracting and maintaining a less than representative population of students than would be found at non-selective local schools.

All of the Texas schools on the list are schools of choice, meaning that students have to apply to these schools, and meet all requirements, in order to be enrolled. It is puzzling why some are even on the list, since they don't seem to even be complete schools yet. For example, a cohort dropout rate (a cohort dropout rate is basically determined by dividing the totally number of students in the ninth grade by the number of students who fail to graduate with that class four years later) of zero for a high school would be a wonderful statistic, unless, as is the case of Harmony Science Academy of North Austin, it is based on the fact that there is no graduation class, since it had no 11th or 12th grade when Newsweek highlighted the school! Like many schools of choice, this school also had a lower percent of low-income students than comparable local schools.

You can check Texas Ed Site for data http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/index.html Campus #: 031916003 2010 enrollment 9th 183 10th 130 11th 92 12th 56 (was 113 9th graders in 2007) Graduates in 2010 51 (according to Newsweek Site) Went from 113 to 87 to 64 to 56 to 51 Ratio of 9th to 12th grade is 3.27:1 92.8% Hispanic but 2.8% LEP is unusual. Look at Newsweek site: Average AP score is 1.6 Positive stat is that 98% of graduates enroll in college, but there are not many graduates.

2009 Class of 2009 had only 32 graduates College Readiness 37% enrollment 9th 161 10th 149 11th 64 12th 29

2008 College Readiness 39% Class of 2008 had only 35 graduates enrollment 9th155 10th 87 11th 36 12th 35

2007 9th 113

Wikipedia Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_Academy_of_Medical_Technology

School Website http://medtech.stisd.net/