The Austin Independent School District serves 82,074 students on 110 campuses. Unlike many urban school districts in the U.S. today, AISD has a richly, diverse student community. It includes children from all economic levels and all kinds of backgrounds. Also unlike many other urban school districts, AISD enjoys widespread community support. AISD students come from homes in which 57 different native languages are spoken. These include children from Uzbekistan, the Sudan, Mexico, Bolivia, Vietnam and South Korea. Fifty-seven percent of our students are Hispanic, 27 percent are Anglo, 13 percent are African American, and 3 percent are Asian. More than half our students come from low-income families, and 20 percent enter our schools as English-Language Learners.

In recent years, AISD has established a system-wide structure to guide teaching and learning, based on high expectations for all children, the state's TEKS standards, clearly defined principles of learning and a devotion to continuous academic improvement. Recent dramatic increases in student achievement are one set of indicators of the school district's progress. During the past year:

• AISD was a leader among Texas urban school districts on the new state standardized tests (TAKS). Four years ago, it trailed most other urban districts. All our students are making significant improvement, while we're closing the achievement gaps among our subsets of students.
• In Spring 2003 new TAKS Grade 3 Reading test that serves as the new required state promotional standards, 95% of all AISD students passed the test, mirroring the state average and all student groups scored above 90% passing for the first time in AISD.
• The AISD dropout rate has been cut by more than two-thirds over the past four years. Last year's rate was 1.1%.
• The average SAT scores for the AISD Class of 2002 exceeded the state average by more than 50 points and the national average by 29 points while AISD has larger percentages of all students taking the test. Advanced Placement participation (54.6%) is more than twice the state rate (26.3%) and far outdistances the rates for Dallas (38.3%) and Fort Worth (31.6%). AISD seniors received 140 National Merit awards in 2003.
• AISD has five of Newsweek's top 600 high schools in the nation, more than any other district in Texas.
• AISD has more National Board Certified teachers than any other Texas district.
• AISD is a diverse, urban district making great progress in student academic achievement. A recent study commissioned by the Austin Chamber of Commerce concluded "Austin's public schools are comparable, if not superior to, the benchmarked cities of Denver, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham and Seattle."

At the same time, the Austin School District is facing new challenges, including rising state standards and a growing recent immigrant student population, while it has reached a state cap on its ability to raise revenue through property taxes. The district received 96 percent of its revenue from local property taxes in 2002-03. For the coming year, the District has reduced its overall budgeted expenditures by $8.7 million.

Among those cuts were some of the funds our campuses use to purchase library books. We are now working with the Barnes & Noble stores in Central Texas to mount a fall campaign through which AISD parents and other Austin supporters of our schools can purchase books for our school libraries at a discount from Barnes & Noble stores. Our librarians are preparing a list of most needed books. Patrons will be able to purchase books from that list for our schools. We will pick up and distribute those books to our schools at the end of the campaign. This should provide a much-need boost for our library collections. And it will get the entire community involved in providing supporting reading for our students. Barnes and Noble will help with the publicity. Our council of PTAs will help with publicity on all our campuses.

This is a prime example of the community and corporate support that is helping the Austin School District make great academic progress.

* Some of this material is subject to change as new statistical information and student information analysis becomes available