Catherine Bell Elementary

Catherine Bell Elementary in Little Elm, TX, serves 560 students from Pre-K through 5th grade within the Denton Independent School District (Isd), and has recently shown a promising turnaround after years of struggle.

After consistently earning a 1-star rating, the school jumped to a 2-star rating for the 2025-2026 school year, its best performance in five years. This improvement is largely driven by remarkable gains for Hispanic students and English Language Learners, who now perform in the 79th and 69th percentiles statewide, respectively. A standout strength is 3rd Grade Math, where 46.48% of students are proficient—outpacing both the district and state averages. However, the school faces significant challenges, particularly with its low socio-economic status students, who have ranked in the 9th percentile or lower for three years. A critical weakness is 5th Grade Science, where only 2.33% of students were proficient, far below the state average of 29.57% and dramatically lower than nearby Robertson Elementary (51.3%) and Miller Elementary (46.94%) in the Frisco Independent School District (Isd).

Geographically, Catherine Bell sits in a neighborhood with stark educational disparities. While it and nearby Providence Elementary, Paloma Creek Elementary, and Savannah Elementary all have over 40% of students on free/reduced lunch and rank in the 7th-31st percentile, the closest Frisco ISD schools have less than 13% and rank in the 87th-90th percentile. Even within Denton ISD, Union Park Elementary is an outlier, ranking in the 65th percentile with significantly higher test scores. Notably, Catherine Bell’s per-student spending ($10,034) is higher than the high-performing Frisco schools, suggesting that the school’s challenges are more about resource allocation and instructional strategy than funding levels.