Correction: An earlier version overstated Aldine's enrollment, understated Donna's Hispanic enrollment share, and reported the wrong statewide graduation-rate series. It also presented unsupported poverty, demographic-prediction, major-urban ranking, and causal claims. This version relies on the Texas Education Agency's published records and limits the findings to the measured enrollment and graduation-rate changes.

Aldine ISD^↗ET rebounded from a 78.4% four-year graduation rate for the Class of 2023 to 84.6% for 2024, a 6.2-point increase. Donna ISD^↗ET reached 96.3% after improving in each of the four observed annual transitions since 2020.

The 2024 enrollment rows put Aldine at 57,737 students and Donna at 13,124. Aldine's enrollment was 74.6% Hispanic and 47.4% English learner; Donna's was 99.5% Hispanic and 56.5% English learner.

Aldine's rebound followed two declines

Aldine's all-student graduation rate was 79.0% in 2020, 81.1% in 2021, 80.0% in 2022, 78.4% in 2023, and 84.6% in 2024. The latest rebound produced a 5.6-point gain across the full endpoints, but Aldine's path was not a continuous improvement streak.

The latest subgroup changes were also positive in the published rows. From 2023 to 2024, Aldine's Hispanic rate rose from 77.9% to 85.1%, a 7.2-point gain. The English-learner rate rose from 64.0% to 73.4%, a 9.4-point gain, and the at-risk rate rose from 76.5% to 83.2%, a 6.7-point gain.

Those rows establish that the 2024 rates were higher. They do not identify what caused the changes or whether they will persist.

Donna improved in every observed transition

Donna's all-student rate rose from 89.1% in 2020 to 89.7% in 2021, 94.3% in 2022, 94.4% in 2023, and 96.3% in 2024. That was a 7.2-point endpoint gain. Donna was one of seven districts in the package with five complete observations and an increase in all four transitions.

Donna's Hispanic rate rose from 89.2% to 96.3% across the endpoints. Its economically disadvantaged rate rose from 89.0% to 96.2%, and its English-learner rate rose from 83.4% to 96.4%, a 13.0-point gain.

The state comparison was 90.3% to 90.7%

Texas's all-student rate rose from 90.3% in 2020 to 90.7% in 2024, a 0.4-point endpoint gain. Aldine's 84.6% rate remained 6.1 points below the state in 2024, while Donna's 96.3% rate was 5.6 points above it.

The turnaround chart applies a separate, explicit screen: ISDs or CISDs with all five observations and a 2020 rate below 90%, ranked by their 2020-to-2024 change. It shows the ten largest endpoint gains under those criteria; it is not a ranking of district effectiveness or evidence about why any rate changed.

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