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Ponder, Texas - 3 schools
An equity score of 23/100 ranks Ponder Isd #948 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,448 per pupil, Ponder Isd ranks #889 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,640
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$11,448
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Ponder Isd operates 3 public schools serving 1,640 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Denton County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,448 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 56.7% local, 33.7% state, and 9.6% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 23/100, ranked #948 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 3 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 444.2:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 17.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 56.6% White, 38.1% Hispanic or Latino, 1.3% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Ponder H S, with a diversity index of 54.0/100.
Its largest campus is Ponder El, enrolling 773 students (45% of the district's total enrollment).
Ponder El accounts for 45.0% of all Ponder Isd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Ponder Isd-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Ponder Isd student-counselor ratio is 444:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Ponder Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 17.2% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Ponder Isd is typically wider than the Ponder Isd-aggregate figure suggests.