Summary:
Encinal, Texas, is served by a single public school, Encinal Elementary, a small rural campus within the Cotulla Independent School District (Isd) that educates 74 students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Encinal Elementary presents a complex picture for parents. On one hand, the school offers an exceptionally personalized learning environment with a very low student-teacher ratio of 7.6 to 1 and spends a substantial $20,699 per student, far above the state average. On the other hand, the school's overall academic performance is low, ranking in the 17th percentile of Texas elementary schools (3,818 out of 4,627) and earning a 1-star rating. The school serves a high-poverty community, with 85.14% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. The most recent test scores show average proficiency rates of 38.5% in Reading and 27.1% in Mathematics, both well below state averages. A notable bright spot is the 5th grade class, which achieved a 62.5% proficiency rate in Reading, outperforming both the district and the state average.
The school's performance is marked by significant inconsistency from grade to grade and year to year, a common challenge in very small schools where a single cohort can dramatically shift results. For instance, while 5th grade Reading excelled, 3rd grade Reading proficiency was only 16.67% in the same year. The school's ranking has also declined, dropping from the 34th percentile in 2024-2025 to the 17th percentile in 2025-2026. This "high spend, low return" paradox suggests that the deep challenges of extreme poverty are not easily overcome by financial resources and small class sizes alone, making Encinal Elementary a critical case study in rural education.
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