Summary:
Nacogdoches, Texas, is home to seven elementary schools serving grades PK through 5, with a total enrollment ranging from 253 to 612 students, and these schools are divided between the Nacogdoches Independent School District (Isd), the Central Heights Independent School District (Isd), and the Stephen F Austin State University Charter School.
The standout schools in the area are Stephen F Austin State University Charter School, which ranks in the 99th percentile statewide and has dramatically higher test scores than any other school, and Central Heights Elementary, a high-achieving traditional public school ranked in the 83rd percentile. In contrast, Emeline Carpenter Elementary is the most challenged school, ranking in the 0th percentile with critically low math proficiency rates below 4%. Within the Nacogdoches ISD, Thomas J Rusk Elementary and Raguet Elementary are bright spots, with Rusk showing strong 5th-grade reading and math scores that significantly outpace its district peers.
Key metrics reveal a stark performance gap: the Nacogdoches ISD ranks in the 9th percentile statewide, while Central Heights ISD ranks in the 93rd percentile and the SFA Charter district ranks 3rd. Poverty levels are high in the Nacogdoches ISD, with an average free/reduced lunch rate of 86.6%, compared to 40.88% at Central Heights. Interestingly, the school with the highest spending per student ($13,320 at Emeline Carpenter) has the lowest performance, while the school with the lowest spending ($8,431 at SFA Charter) has the highest, suggesting that socioeconomic factors are a primary driver of outcomes. Additionally, math scores are consistently lower than reading scores across Nacogdoches ISD schools, and bilingual programs appear to be a relative strength, as students taking the STAAR test in Spanish often perform comparably to their English-testing peers.
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