Pershing Park Elementary

Pershing Park Elementary in Killeen, TX, is a large school serving 934 students in grades PK through 5, and it is part of the Killeen Independent School District (Isd).

Pershing Park Elementary faces significant challenges, with overall academic performance consistently ranking in the bottom quarter of Texas elementary schools. The most pressing concern is in mathematics, where proficiency rates are dramatically lower than district and state averages. For example, in the 2025-2026 school year, only 20% of 5th graders met math standards, compared to 39% district-wide and 47% statewide. This struggle is a key differentiator from nearby schools like Meadows Elementary (51st percentile) and Clear Creek Elementary (48th percentile), which perform much closer to the state average. However, the school shows a remarkable strength in its Gifted and Talented (GT) program, which ranked in the 97th percentile statewide in 2024-2025. This suggests that while the general student body struggles, the school has a highly effective program for its identified GT students. Additionally, the school’s support for English Language Learners (ELL) is relatively strong, ranking in the 56th percentile, which is uncommon for a school facing such overall challenges.

Despite these difficulties, there are some positive signs. The school’s overall state ranking has slowly improved from the 13th percentile in 2022 to the 26th percentile in 2026. When compared to its closest neighbor, Venable Village Elementary, Pershing Park actually outperformed it in 5th-grade reading and 4th-grade math in the most recent year. The nearby charter school, Priority Charter Schools - Killeen, which serves a smaller and less economically disadvantaged population, significantly outperforms Pershing Park, highlighting the impact of economic factors on academic outcomes. Over 73% of Pershing Park students qualify for free or reduced lunch, a rate much higher than at top-performing nearby schools like Meadows Elementary (41%).