Brown Elementary

Brown Elementary is a PK-5 public school in the Lubbock Independent School District serving 409 students in a high-poverty area, where 95.84% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. This school has shown remarkable improvement, jumping from the 25th percentile (1-star) to the 39th percentile (2-stars) in just one year, driven by a standout strength in 3rd-grade mathematics. In 2025-2026, 65.31% of Brown’s 3rd graders were proficient in math, significantly outperforming the district (42.47%) and state (44.33%) averages—a 21-percentage-point advantage over the district. This is a clear differentiator from nearby schools like Parsons Elementary (21.15% proficiency) and Harwell Elementary (4.35% proficiency) in the same grade and subject.

However, Brown faces a critical challenge in reading proficiency, which declines sharply as students progress. Reading scores drop from 46.94% in 3rd grade to 39.02% in 4th grade, then plummet to just 27.42% in 5th grade—less than half the state average (58.47%) and the lowest among comparable schools in the area. This "reverse slide" suggests a systemic issue in upper elementary grades, contrasting with more consistent performance at schools like Bayless Elementary or Maedgen Elementary. The school has made a significant investment in staffing, reducing its student-teacher ratio from 19.4 to 13.4, one of the lowest among peers like Overton Elementary (10.8) and Hodges Elementary (11.6), which likely supports more individualized attention.

Despite these challenges, Brown excels in serving its African American students, who ranked in the 60th percentile statewide (3-star rating), the highest-performing subgroup at the school. The school also shows strong progress for Special Education (60th percentile), Low Socio-Economic Status (56th percentile), and English Language Learners (54th percentile). Science remains a universal weakness, with Brown’s 5th-grade proficiency at 22%, but this is consistent with nearby high-poverty schools like Wheelock Elementary (7.32%) and Bean Elementary (7.14%), pointing to a district-wide need for intervention. Just 0.88 miles away, Wilson Elementary (5-star, 91st percentile) dramatically outperforms Brown in every subject, highlighting the powerful impact of socioeconomic factors on academic outcomes.