Executive Summary
The LearningDifferences.Info® SPED Support Score is designed to help parents understand how well schools support students receiving special education services. Most public school rating systems emphasize overall academic performance. Our approach looks specifically at students with disabilities and considers academic outcomes, growth, inclusion, staffing, discipline, and graduation or dropout outcomes.
The score is not intended to replace parent judgment, school visits, IEP or ARD discussions, or disability-specific research. It is intended to give families a clearer starting point when comparing schools and asking better questions.
| What parents see | What it means |
|---|---|
| SPED Support Score | A composite score from 0 to 100 based on six areas of special education support. |
| SPED Support Percentile | How the school compares with other similarly structured schools (Elementary/Primary, Middle, High, or All-Grade) in the state. |
| Sub-scores | The six component scores that explain why a school scored higher or lower. |
| Campus Type Label | A parent-friendly label such as Traditional Public School, Charter School, Specialized Special Education Campus, or Virtual School. |
| Ranking Status | Whether the school is included in statewide SPED Support scoring or shown with data only. |
Which Schools Are Ranked?
LearningDifferences.Info® ranks schools that provide a broadly comparable K-12 educational experience and serve students receiving special education services.
- Traditional Public Schools
- Charter Schools
- Magnet Schools
- Traditional K-12 Schools
- Specialized Special Education Campuses serving K-12 students
Schools with fewer than 10 students receiving special education services are not ranked because results may be too unstable to support meaningful comparisons.
Which Schools Are Not Ranked?
Some schools and programs serve very specialized populations or provide services in settings that are not comparable to traditional campuses. These schools are not included in statewide SPED Support scoring.
- Virtual Schools
- Early Childhood Special Education Centers
- Transition Programs serving students ages 18-22
- Alternative Education Programs
- Juvenile Justice Schools
- Hospital School Programs
- Residential Treatment Schools
- Homebound Instruction Programs
Important: LearningDifferences.Info® still displays available data for non-ranked schools. A school may be excluded from ranking but still have its enrollment, disability profile, staffing, outcomes, discipline, and other available data shown on the website. Non-ranked does not mean low quality; it means the school is not directly comparable to ranked campuses.
A school may also be a rankable campus type but still not receive a score if it does not meet the Moderate Core Rule for data sufficiency. See Minimum Data Requirements (Moderate Core Rule) below.
How the SPED Support Score Is Built
The SPED Support Score is based on six sub-scores. These sub-scores are combined into a preliminary score, then adjusted to improve fairness and statistical stability.
How the six weighted sub-scores flow through the Moderate Core Rule and the adjustments to produce the final SPED Support Score and the peer-group SPED Support Percentile.
| Sub-score | Weight | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Performance | 15% | Measures achievement against grade-level academic standards. |
| Academic Growth | 20% | Measures progress over time. |
| Inclusion & Placement | 20% | Measures access to neurotypical peers and less restrictive settings. |
| Staffing Support | 20% | Measures staffing capacity to support students with disabilities. |
| Discipline Climate | 10% | Measures whether students with disabilities are removed from instruction through disciplinary actions. |
| Graduation & Dropout Outcomes | 15% | Measures long-term educational outcomes. |
Academic Performance (15%)
Academic Performance measures how well students receiving special education services perform on statewide academic assessments. This sub-score recognizes that academic achievement remains important, while keeping test performance from dominating the entire score.
Measures considered include:
- Percentage of students meeting grade-level standards
- Percentage of students exceeding grade-level standards
- Performance across tested subjects
- Performance across tested grade levels
Why it matters: A school with a higher Academic Performance sub-score is showing stronger tested academic achievement among students receiving special education services.
Academic Growth (20%)
Academic Growth measures whether students receiving special education services are making progress over time. This is especially important because students with disabilities may begin at very different academic starting points.
Measures considered include:
- Year-over-year academic growth
- Progress toward grade-level expectations
- Improvement relative to prior performance
- Growth across tested subjects
Why it matters: A school with a higher Academic Growth sub-score is helping students move forward academically, even if some students have not yet reached grade-level proficiency.
Inclusion & Placement (20%)
Inclusion & Placement measures the extent to which students receiving special education services are educated alongside their neurotypical peers, while recognizing that some students appropriately require more specialized settings.
Measures considered include:
- Mainstream placement rates
- Resource room utilization
- Self-contained classroom placement rates
- Residential placement rates
- Homebound placement rates
Why it matters: A higher score generally reflects greater access to the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), general education classrooms, peer interaction, and broader school participation.
Staffing Support (20%)
Staffing Support measures whether the school appears to have enough special education staffing capacity to support its students with disabilities.
Measures considered include:
- Special education teacher-to-student ratios
- Number of special education teachers
- Number of teachers with special education certification
- Staffing capacity relative to special education enrollment
Why it matters: A higher score suggests stronger staffing resources for individualized instruction, accommodations, services, and case management.
Discipline Climate (10%)
Discipline Climate measures the frequency of disciplinary actions involving students receiving special education services. It is intended to capture whether students with disabilities are being removed from instruction at high rates.
Measures considered include:
- In-school suspensions
- Out-of-school suspensions
- Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placements
- Expulsions
- Juvenile justice placements where reported
Why it matters: A higher score generally indicates fewer disciplinary removals and may suggest stronger behavioral supports or more consistent access to instruction.
Graduation & Dropout Outcomes (15%)
Graduation & Dropout Outcomes measures whether students receiving special education services are completing school successfully and avoiding dropout.
Measures considered include:
- Graduation rates
- Longitudinal dropout rates
- Annual dropout rates
- Successful completion of high school programs
Why it matters: A higher score indicates stronger long-term outcomes for students receiving special education services.
Minimum Data Requirements (Moderate Core Rule)
A school receives a SPED Support Score only when sufficient public data are available to produce a reliable comparison. LearningDifferences.Info® applies a Moderate Core Rule requiring at least four of the six component sub-scores to be available.
Academic Growth, Inclusion & Placement, and Staffing Support are mandatory because they represent student progress, access to the least restrictive environment, and available educational resources.
Schools that do not satisfy these requirements remain visible on the website with all available public data, but no overall SPED Support Score or SPED Support Percentile is displayed.
Updated Scoring Flow
Six Component Sub-scores → Moderate Core Rule (≥4 components; Growth + Inclusion + Staffing required) → Preliminary SPED Support Score → Bayesian Adjustment → Reliability Adjustment → Complex Needs Adjustment → Final SPED Support Score → SPED Support Percentile (displayed to one decimal place, maximum displayed value 99.9%).
Bayesian Adjustment
Schools vary widely in how many students receiving special education services they serve. A school with a very small SPED population can appear unusually high or low simply because one or two students change the percentage significantly.
To reduce this problem, each component score is partially blended with statewide averages. Smaller schools receive more adjustment. Larger schools rely more heavily on their own results. This makes the score more stable and reduces the risk of overinterpreting small samples.
Reliability Adjustment
LearningDifferences.Info® also applies a reliability adjustment based on the size of the school’s special education population. Larger SPED populations provide more statistical evidence, while smaller populations require more caution. The adjustment helps prevent very small schools with unusually high or low results from dominating statewide comparisons.
Complex Needs Adjustment
Some schools serve a larger share of students with significant support needs. To improve fairness, LearningDifferences.Info® applies a modest Complex Needs Adjustment so that schools serving more complex student populations are not unfairly penalized.
Measures considered include:
- Participation in alternate assessments such as STAAR ALT2
- Percentage of students with Intellectual Disabilities
- Autism is not included because autism covers a broad spectrum of support needs
- Multiple Disabilities may be added in future states or future Texas releases if it is available as a reliable separate field
The adjustment is intentionally modest. It helps account for student complexity without allowing population mix alone to determine the score.
SPED Support Score and SPED Support Percentile
The final SPED Support Score is shown as a number from 0 to 100. The SPED Support Percentile shows how that school compares with other similarly structured schools, using four peer groups: Elementary/Primary, Middle, High, and All-Grade (full K-12) campuses. Comparing schools within the same peer group avoids misleading comparisons between grade levels that are not developmentally or structurally comparable.
For example, a SPED Support Percentile of 93.9% for a High school means that school’s SPED Support Score is higher than approximately 93.9% of other ranked High schools in the state — not all ranked schools statewide. SPED Support Percentiles are displayed to one decimal place, with a maximum displayed value of 99.9%.
LearningDifferences.Info® does not display rank because rank can exaggerate small score differences. Percentiles provide a clearer and more parent-friendly comparison.
Campus Type Legend
| Campus Type | Parent-Friendly Definition | Ranked? |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional Public School | A standard public school operated by a local school district. | Yes |
| Charter School | A publicly funded school operated independently under a state charter. | Yes |
| Magnet School | A public school with a specialized academic focus or theme. | Yes |
| Traditional K-12 School | A campus serving multiple grade levels from elementary through high school. | Yes |
| Specialized Special Education Campus | A campus specifically designed to serve students with significant disabilities requiring intensive supports. | Yes |
| Virtual School | A primarily online educational program. | No |
| Early Childhood Special Education Center | A preschool special education program serving children before kindergarten. | No |
| Transition Program (Ages 18-22) | A program focused on employment, independent living, and community participation after high school requirements. | No |
| Alternative Education Program | A disciplinary or alternative placement campus. | No |
| Juvenile Justice School | An education program operating in a juvenile justice or detention setting. | No |
| Hospital School Program | An education program serving students in a hospital or medical setting. | No |
| Residential Treatment School | An education program within a residential treatment facility. | No |
| Homebound Instruction Program | Education provided primarily in the student’s home due to medical or other needs. | No |
Sample School Profile Display
A school profile on LearningDifferences.Info® may show the following parent-facing summary:
| Metric | Example |
|---|---|
| Campus Type | Traditional High School |
| SPED Support Score | 58.8 / 100 |
| SPED Support Percentile | 93.9% |
| Ranking Status | Ranked |
| Academic Performance | 36.6 |
| Academic Growth | 58.7 |
| Inclusion & Placement | 27.0 |
| Staffing Support | 58.1 |
| Discipline Climate | 71.7 |
| Graduation & Dropout Outcomes | 95.6 |
Limitations of the Methodology
No score can fully describe the quality of a special education program or determine the best school for an individual child. Public data may not capture family experience, IEP quality, teacher skill, related services, school culture, communication, or disability-specific program design. Parents should use the SPED Support Score as a screening tool and starting point for deeper research, not as a final decision-making tool.