Why I Built This
I didn’t set out to build a data tool.
I set out to answer a question that every Black parent in Texas deserves an honest answer to. Is the school my child attends actually serving them?
Not serving kids in general. Not serving the district average. Serving Black children specifically.
When I started pulling the data from the Texas Education Agency, I wasn’t prepared for what I found. The gap between the best and worst schools for Black students in Texas is 100 points. One hundred points. That means a Black child at the wrong school is passing grade-level tests at a rate 100 points lower than a Black child at the right school. Same state. Same tests. Same children. Different outcomes entirely.
Most families have no idea where their child’s school falls on that spectrum. The data is public. It’s been public the whole time. But it’s buried in spreadsheets that were never designed for a parent sitting at a kitchen table trying to make the best decision for their child.
So I built something that was.
texastea.hbcugrad.org lets any Black family in Texas look up any school in the state and see exactly how Black students are performing compared to every other group, using the most recent TEA data available. It takes 30 seconds. It’s free. And it will tell you something your child’s school probably never will.
That’s why The Light Bearer exists.
The tool was the beginning. This publication is what comes next. Data-driven stories about what’s really happening to Black students across Texas and eventually across the country. The schools that are getting it right. The ones that aren’t. The districts hiding behind good overall numbers while Black children fall further behind every year.
No fluff. Just the truth, with receipts.
If you’re a Black parent, this is for you. If you’re an educator who knows something is wrong and wants the data to prove it, this is for you. If you’re anyone who believes that where a child is born should not determine whether they learn to read, this is for you.
Rashad
The Light Bearer