Natalia Elementary

Natalia Elementary in Natalia, TX, serves 426 students in grades 2 through 5 within the Natalia Independent School District (Isd), a rural district ranked in the bottom 15% of Texas districts, where about 65% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

This school faces significant academic challenges, particularly in math and science, where proficiency rates are critically low. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only about 15% of 3rd graders and 26% of 4th graders were proficient in math—roughly half the state average. In 5th-grade science, just 6.6% of students were proficient, compared to the state average of nearly 30%. This is the lowest science proficiency rate among all comparable nearby schools. While the school has shown a slight upward trend in overall ranking, moving from the 7th to the 17th percentile in recent years, it is still one of the lowest-performing schools in the area. Nearby schools like Castroville Elementary and Lacoste Elementary in the higher-performing Medina Valley Independent School District (Isd) consistently achieve proficiency rates 20-30 percentage points higher in nearly every subject.

Despite these struggles, there are a few bright spots. The school’s Gifted and Talented program is relatively effective, ranking in the 33rd percentile, which is higher than the school’s overall rank. Additionally, in the 2022-2023 school year, 48% of 4th graders were proficient in math—above the state average and the highest among nearby schools that year—showing that targeted interventions can yield strong results. Interestingly, per-student spending at Natalia Elementary ($10,767) is comparable to higher-performing schools like Castroville ($10,133), suggesting that the challenges are more about instructional strategies and resource allocation than overall funding. The school’s biggest hurdle is replicating its past successes and improving outcomes for its core student population.