Summary
Shawnee Trail Elementary is a mid-sized school in Frisco, TX, serving 494 students in grades PK-5 within the highly-rated Frisco Independent School District (Isd), which ranks in the 96th percentile statewide. While the school holds a solid 4-star rating (71st percentile), its recent performance has been volatile, with a notable decline from peak years in 2016-2019, followed by a recovery from a low of 3 stars in 2022-2023. This inconsistency sets it apart from nearby top-tier schools like Talley Elementary (99th-100th percentile) and McSpedden Elementary (99th percentile), which have maintained elite rankings year after year.
A key academic weakness is 5th grade Science, where only 25.71% of students were proficient in 2024-2025—less than half the district average and below the state average. This is a consistent trend, with every nearby school outperforming Shawnee Trail in this subject, often by wide margins (e.g., Talley at 78.71%, McSpedden at 76.92%). The school also shows a persistent gender gap, with female students ranking in the 75th percentile and male students in the 66th percentile for 2025-2026, suggesting instructional strategies may not be equally effective for all students. Additionally, while Gifted and Talented students excel at the 95th percentile, Hispanic students rank in the 10th percentile, a dramatic decline from previous years.
Interestingly, Shawnee Trail has a higher free/reduced lunch rate (29.55%) than top-performing neighbors like Talley (4.22%) and McSpedden (4.01%), yet it outperforms Bright Academy, a demographically similar school just 1.48 miles away (50.1% free/reduced lunch), which ranks in the 48th percentile. This suggests Shawnee Trail is adding value relative to its challenges, but it still lags behind more affluent peers. The school also shows strong support for English Language Learner and Special Education students (both at the 85th percentile), though this success doesn't fully translate to all subgroups. With a lower student-teacher ratio (11.4:1) than many higher-performing peers, Shawnee Trail is at a crossroads, needing to sustain its recent improvement and close gaps in Science and Math to match the exceptional standards of its Frisco ISD neighbors.
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