Summary:
The Elgin Independent School District (Isd) contains two middle-level schools—Elgin Intermediate (grades 5-6) and Elgin Middle (grades 7-8)—serving a combined 1,702 students in a community where over 80% of students face economic disadvantage, and the district ranks in the 5th percentile statewide, indicating significant systemic challenges.
Both schools struggle with critically low academic performance, but Elgin Middle shows a stark contrast between its highest and lowest achievers. While only 2.63% of its 7th graders are proficient in grade-level math, 42.03% of students taking Algebra I (an advanced course) are proficient—a 39.4 percentage point gap that reveals a "bubble" of high performance for a select few. Meanwhile, Elgin Intermediate faces a crisis in science, with just 2.53% of 5th graders proficient—nearly 11 times lower than the state average. The intermediate school also has a higher student-teacher ratio (21.7:1) and spends $1,776 less per student ($8,613) compared to Elgin Middle ($10,389), yet both schools remain in the bottom 10% of Texas schools.
A key takeaway is that math proficiency is alarmingly low across both schools, with 5th graders at Elgin Intermediate scoring just 8.71% proficient and 7th graders at Elgin Middle at 2.63%. Spanish-language test takers at the intermediate school also underperform, with only 11.11% proficient in reading versus 27.14% for English test-takers. On a positive note, Elgin Middle has a low dropout rate of 0.4%, suggesting students stay enrolled despite academic struggles, providing a foundation for future interventions.
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