Draw Academy

Draw Academy is a public charter school in Houston, TX, serving 696 students in grades PK-8, where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and it operates as its own single-school district.

Draw Academy has faced significant academic challenges, consistently ranking in the bottom 5-16% of Texas elementary schools over the past decade. The most pressing concern is in math, where proficiency rates are drastically below state averages—for example, only 20.97% of 4th graders were proficient in math compared to the state average of 49.28%. Science and social studies scores are even more concerning, with just 1.72% of 5th graders proficient in science and 1.64% of 8th graders proficient in social studies in a recent year. The school also has a very high student-to-teacher ratio of 29.3:1, which is much higher than nearby schools like Benavidez Elementary (14.8:1) and KIPP Sharp Prep (23.6:1), making individualized instruction difficult.

There is a glimmer of hope: the school's ranking improved from the 4th percentile to the 16th percentile in the most recent year, and 8th-grade math proficiency actually exceeded the state average (49.12% vs. 47.24%). However, this improvement is not yet consistent across all subjects. A stark contrast exists with Briarmeadow Charter, located just 0.4 miles away, which ranks in the 91st percentile and serves a student population with far fewer economic challenges. While Draw Academy spends more per student ($10,960) than some higher-performing neighbors like KIPP Sharp Prep ($8,730), the high student-to-teacher ratio suggests funds may not be directed toward classroom instruction effectively.