Summary
Starrett Elementary in Grand Prairie, TX, is a PK-6 school serving 479 students within the Arlington Independent School District (Isd), and it has faced significant academic challenges, consistently ranking in the bottom 15-20% of Texas elementary schools over the past decade. The school's most pressing issue is in mathematics, where proficiency rates are critically low across all grades—for example, only 15.25% of 5th graders and 20.97% of 6th graders met state standards in the 2025-2026 school year, a gap of 20-30 percentage points behind the state average. Reading performance is also inconsistent, with scores fluctuating dramatically from year to year, suggesting a lack of a stable, vertically-aligned curriculum. Additionally, the school struggles to meet the needs of its Special Education and Gifted and Talented students, who rank in the 3rd and 7th percentiles statewide, respectively.
Despite these challenges, there is a notable bright spot: Starrett's English Language Learner (ELL) students rank in the 34th percentile statewide, earning a 2-star rating, which indicates that the school's ESL/bilingual programs may be more effective than its general education instruction. This relative success provides a potential foundation for improvement. However, the school's overall performance is puzzling when compared to nearby West Elementary, which is just 0.7 miles away and serves a similar student population (with about 78% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch at both schools). West Elementary is a top-performing school in the 62nd percentile, while Starrett remains in the bottom 10th percentile, highlighting that the difference likely lies in school-level leadership, instructional quality, and culture rather than student demographics.
Interestingly, Starrett's poor performance is not due to a lack of resources. The school spends $9,185 per student and has a low student-to-teacher ratio of 12.3:1, which is better than West Elementary's 14.7:1. This suggests that the issue is how resources are utilized, not their availability. The school has experienced a decade-long decline from a peak rank in the 34th percentile in 2016-2017 to its current 1-star rating, indicating that a comprehensive, data-driven turnaround plan is urgently needed. For parents considering this school, it is important to note that while the school serves a high-needs population, its academic outcomes are significantly lower than those of nearby schools like Farrell Elementary and FitzGerald Elementary, which are also in the Arlington Independent School District (Isd).
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