Texas's graduation-rate data tells an unusual equity story: the state-level gaps are tightly compressed.

The gap between economically disadvantaged students and all students is 1.1 percentage points. Special education students trail by 6.6 points. Boys are 2.0 points behind girls. In the 2024 state file, the 11 subgroups with usable rates all fall within 7.8 percentage points of each other.

The poverty gap that barely exists

Economically disadvantaged students in Texas graduated at 93.2% for the Class of 2024, compared to 94.4% for all students. The gap of 1.1 percentage points is down from 1.5 in 2020 and has been shrinking steadily.

The state graduation file does not explain why the gap is so narrow. It only shows the result: the economically disadvantaged rate tracks close to the all-students rate across the five available cohorts.

Special education: 6.6 points and closing

Special education students reached a five-year high of 87.8% for the Class of 2024, up from 86.2% five years earlier. The gap with all students narrowed from 8.3 points to 6.6 points.

At the district level, the gap varies widely. London ISD shows the widest special education gap at 37.7 points, with a 60.0% special education graduation rate against a 97.7% overall rate. Rockdale ISD has a 35.8-point gap.

Gender: a reversal within the narrowing

The gender gap tells a more complex story. From the Class of 2020 to the Class of 2023, the gap narrowed steadily from 2.6 points to 1.6 points. Then it widened back to 2.0 points in 2024.

Female students graduated at 95.4% in 2024. Male students graduated at 93.4%. Both rates improved over the five-year window, but female students' rate grew faster in the most recent year, pushing the gap back open.

Whether the 2024 widening represents a new trend or a one-year fluctuation will require more data.

What all the subgroups look like together

The most striking feature of Texas's graduation data is compression. The 11 subgroups with available data span a range of 7.8 percentage points, from Asian students at 95.6% to special education students at 87.8%.

At-risk students graduate at 92.1%, only 2.3 points below the state average. English learners post 91.3%. Economically disadvantaged students post 93.2%. In the TEA file, groups that often drive equity analyses are clustered within a few points of the overall rate.

The gap we cannot measure

The most conspicuous absence from this equity analysis is the Black-white graduation gap, the most commonly reported equity metric in American education. Texas's graduation data includes no usable rates for Black or Native American students across any year, any district, or any campus in the dataset. The equity story is necessarily incomplete.

The Texas Education Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.