Texas is home to the second-largest public school system in the U.S., educating more than 5.5 million students across 9,113 schools within 1,202 districts.
The Texas Tribune’ has launched its Public Schools Explorer to give parents and educators information on enrollment trends, demographics, teacher experience, pay and outcomes for all of those schools, at the regional, district and campus level.
The tool can access local schools, nearby campuses, including traditional districts and charter schools, for information on demographics, funding, how they compare statewide and individual districts performance and accountability. Information has three comparison points including statewide ranking, regional ranking, and peer ranking. The Tribune uses the Texas Education Agency (TEA) classification system to group districts to more accurately compare performance and outcomes among districts operating in similar environments across the state.
The Texas Legislature created 20 regional service centers in 1967 to provide school-related services to districts near each other. Known as Education Service Centers (ESCs), they are not regulatory agencies — but they receive state and federal funding to offer consulting and other support services to the districts in their region. Each ESC is governed by a seven-member board elected by members of the local district board of trustees in each region.
TEA places schools into nine categories: major urban, major suburban, other central city, other central city suburban, independent town, non-metropolitan: fast growing, non-metropolitan: stable, rural, and charter schools.
Most U.S. states use enrollment to determine state funding for school districts. Texas is one of only six states that funds schools based on average daily attendance because it theoretically incentivizes schools to make sure students show up to class.
According to the Public Schools Explorer, TEA lists Levelland ISD as “nonmetropolitan stable” with its five campuses in Region 17. The tool shows LISD with an enrollment of 2,405 students in 2026 and demographics showing Hispanic students represent 74.6% of enrollments. Other data includes students listed as economically disadvantaged in 2025 at 71.3%; 55.6% at risk for dropping out for reasons such as limited English, homelessness or involvement in the justice systems; 21.1% are special education students with cognitive, physical and/or emotional disabilities who meet the criteria under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; 9.5% are English language learners; 6.1% are gifted and talented; 1% are homeless or lacking a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence; 11.5% are students with dyslexia; 0.8% are military connected; and 0.4% are in foster care and in legal custody of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
According to the Tribune website, LISD had a 13.3 students per teacher ratio in 2025 with a 95.2% graduation rate in 2024 and a with a dropout rate of 0.2%. The school averaged $11,989 per student in 2024, with district spending averaging $13,197 per student and the base average teaching salary was shown to be %2,953 in 2025.
TEA scores districts and campuses with letter grades to give Texas families an idea of how well they are teaching students. An “A” means the state views the school as showing exemplary performance; “B” means recognized performance; “C” is acceptable performance; a “D” is performance that needs improvement; and an “F” is unacceptable performance. Districts with schools that repeatedly fail could be at risk for a state takeover or other intervention. Critics of the system say districts in lowincome communities tend to fare worse.
In 2024, Levelland ISD received an overall “C” rating. Each school district and campus is rated based on three categories: student performance on state tests and, where applicable, graduation benchmarks; improvement in those scores; and how well schools are educating disadvantaged students. LISD received a C in student achievement based on STAAR performance; C in school progress which show student growth and performance compared to similar schools, and D in closing the gaps which measures how well schools are making sure students of all backgrounds are successful.
Texas is also home to the largest interstate migrant population in the U.S. Children are counted as migratory if they are 21 and younger and moved across school district boundaries in the preceding 36 months. have not been attending school in the U.S. for more than three full academic years, and were not born in any U.S. state, Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia. The state does not consider U.S. citizenship when identifying students as immigrants in public school enrollment data.
Levelland ISD shows 1% of student population born outside the U.S. and in the country for less than three years; and migratory students at 6.6% whose families move seasonally out of the area.
Data for school districts in Sundown, Morton, Smyer, Anton, Whiteface, Whitharral and Ropes can also be located on The Texas Tribune tool at schools.texastribune.org/.