Summary:
Encinal, Texas is home to a single elementary school, Encinal Elementary, which serves grades PK through 5 and is part of the Cotulla Independent School District (Isd), a very small rural school with just 74 students.
Encinal Elementary is a school of dramatic contrasts. It stands out for its extremely high per-student spending of $20,699 and a very low student-teacher ratio of 7.6:1, indicating a high-resource, high-touch educational environment. However, this investment does not translate into consistently high performance. The school’s state ranking has been highly volatile, swinging from the 11th percentile (2023-2024) to the 34th percentile (2024-2025) and back to the 17th percentile (2025-2026). This volatility is likely due to its tiny class sizes, where the performance of just a few students can cause massive percentage swings. For example, 4th-grade reading and math proficiency dropped from over 71% in 2024-2025 to around 27-36% the following year. The school also serves a population with very high economic need, with 85.14% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Despite the challenges, there are glimmers of potential. The 2024-2025 school year showed that the school can achieve results above district and state averages, particularly in 4th-grade reading and math. However, replicating that success has been inconsistent. A critical weakness is 5th-grade science, where only 8.3% of students were proficient in 2024-2025, far below state averages. For parents, this school offers an intimate, well-funded learning environment, but academic outcomes are unpredictable and heavily influenced by the small student population. The key takeaway is that while resources are abundant, consistent academic excellence remains an elusive goal for this small, high-needs school.
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