Fannin Middle

Fannin Middle in Amarillo, TX, serves 592 students in grades 6-8 within the Amarillo Independent School District (Isd), and is located in an area where over 78% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Over the past decade, Fannin Middle has experienced a significant decline in its statewide academic ranking, dropping from the 59th percentile in 2018-2019 to the 21st percentile for the 2025-2026 school year. This places it among the lower-performing middle schools in Texas, a trend that is reflected across nearly all student subgroups and core subjects. The school's struggles are most pronounced in 7th-grade math, where only 9.71% of students were proficient, far below the state average of 29.41% and the lowest rate among comparable schools. For context, nearby Bonham Middle achieved a 36.91% proficiency rate in the same subject. However, Fannin shows a surprising strength in Algebra I, with 79.07% of students proficient, significantly outperforming the district (55.92%) and state (54.03%). This suggests a "two-tiered" math program where advanced students excel while the general student body struggles.

Fannin's challenges are part of a broader pattern affecting high-poverty middle schools in the district. It is most directly comparable to Houston Middle and Mann Middle, which have similar demographics and similarly low state rankings (19th and 25th percentiles, respectively). All three share the same pattern of very low 7th-grade math scores and surprisingly high Algebra I scores. In contrast, Austin Middle, located only 1.84 miles away but with a lower poverty rate (70%), performs significantly better (54th percentile). On a positive note, Fannin's dropout rate has improved dramatically, dropping from 1.5% in 2021-2022 to just 0.2% in 2023-2024, well below the district average of 0.8%, indicating the school is successfully keeping students enrolled even as academic performance lags.