AISD’s own dropout reports, published up until 1994, when the district discontinued them, showed that through the late Eighties and early Nineties the district was losing nearly one-third of its minority students over four years of high school, and about one-quarter of its overall enrollment. That’s a rate more than twice as high as TEA reported in the same period. AISD’s Office of Research Evaluation required more rigorous documentation than TEA that students who withdrew from the system were continuing their education elsewhere.
AISD Longitudinal Dropout Rate: Progression of First-Time 9th Graders
All Students
| Dropout Rate as of October, following… | ||||
| First-time 9th-grader in | 9th Grade | 10th Grade | 11th Grade | 12th Grade |
| 1987-88 | 10.5% | 14.7% | 19.0% | 24.4% |
| 1988-89 | 9.4% | 13.4% | 19.0% | 25.2% |
| 1989-90 | 7.4% | 11.6% | 17.2% | 23.3% |
| 1990-91 | 7.8% | 13.8% | 19.3% | — |
| 1991-92 | 6.7% | 12.1% | — | — |
| 1992-93 | 6.0% | — | — | — |
African-American
| Dropout Rate as of October, following… | ||||
| First-time 9th-grader in | 9th Grade | 10th Grade | 11th Grade | 12th Grade |
| 1987-88 | 8.3% | 13.1% | 20.1% | 27.8% |
| 1988-89 | 8.2% | 14.3% | 22.1% | 30.4% |
| 1989-90 | 8.8% | 13.2% | 18.9% | 30.3% |
| 1990-91 | 8.4% | 15.2% | 21.3% | — |
| 1991-92 | 7.1% | 13.6% | — | — |
| 1992-93 | 5.5% | — | — | — |
Hispanic
| Dropout Rate as of October, following… | ||||
| First-time 9th-grader in | 9th Grade | 10th Grade | 11th Grade | 12th Grade |
| 1987-88 | 13.6% | 20.0% | 26.6% | 33.4% |
| 1988-89 | 12.9% | 19.2% | 27.0% | 34.2% |
| 1989-90 | 11.1% | 118.2% | 25.9% | 33.1% |
| 1990-91 | 11.9% | 20.8% | 28.7% | — |
| 1991-92 | 10.2% | 18.9% | — | — |
| 1992-93 | 10.4% | — | — | — |
This article appears in May 14 • 1999 and May 14 • 1999 (Cover).