Summary
Deloras E Thompson Elementary is a PK-5 public school in Houston, TX, serving 634 students as part of the Spring Independent School District (Isd), a district that faces systemic challenges. The school serves a high-poverty community, with over 80% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and has consistently ranked in the bottom 20th percentile of Texas elementary schools over the past decade, though it showed slight improvement in its most recent ranking.
A key bright spot is that Thompson’s 3rd graders achieved a 45% proficiency rate in Math, which is above the state average and significantly higher than nearby schools like Hoyland Elementary (26.76%) and Clark Elementary (31.25%). However, the school struggles to maintain this momentum: 5th grade Math proficiency drops dramatically to just 26.73%, and Reading proficiency falls from 38.27% in 3rd grade to 32.67% in 5th grade. This decline is more severe than at Beneke Elementary, a nearby school serving a similar demographic that shows the opposite trend, with 5th graders achieving 64.79% proficiency in Reading and 60.81% in Math. Science scores are also a persistent weakness, with only 13.04% of 5th graders proficient, less than half the state average.
Notably, the school spends $11,041 per student, which is higher than several nearby schools and comparable to the higher-performing Beneke ($11,020), suggesting that funding is not the primary issue. There is a positive trend for English Language Learners, who jumped from the 21st to the 39th percentile in statewide rankings, though the school struggles to serve students still learning primarily in Spanish. Additionally, female students rank significantly lower than male students, indicating that instructional strategies may be less effective for girls. The contrast with Beneke Elementary, just 1.34 miles away, shows that high poverty does not have to dictate low performance, and suggests that replicable best practices exist within the same district.
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