Summary
William B Travis Elementary in Pampa, TX, serves 470 students in 4th and 5th grades and is the largest elementary campus in the Pampa Independent School District (Isd), with nearly 70% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The school has consistently ranked in the bottom 20% of Texas elementary schools over the past three years, with test scores falling well below state averages across all subjects, particularly in mathematics and science. For example, only 18.22% of 5th graders were proficient in math in 2024-2025, compared to the state average of 46.24%, and just 14.41% were proficient in science, less than half the state average of 29.57%.
What sets Travis Elementary apart from nearby schools is its significant underperformance relative to similar rural campuses. White Deer Elementary, just 14 miles away, achieved 44.83% proficiency in 5th grade math and 59.09% in 5th grade reading, despite having a lower but still significant poverty rate. Similarly, Grandview-Hopkins Elementary, 18 miles away, showed strong improvement in 4th grade math, jumping from 57.14% to 60% proficiency over recent years, while Travis Elementary’s 4th grade math scores have remained flat or declined. The school’s performance mirrors the district-wide challenges of Pampa Independent School District (Isd), which ranks in the bottom 21% of all Texas districts, suggesting systemic issues rather than isolated campus problems.
An interesting finding is the progress made by specific student subgroups at Travis Elementary. Multi-racial students and English Language Learner (ELL) students have shown dramatic improvement, jumping from the 1st and 5th percentiles, respectively, to the 25th and 21st percentiles over the past two years. This suggests targeted interventions may be working for these groups, even as the school as a whole struggles. Additionally, a comparison with its feeder school, Lamar Elementary, which serves 2nd and 3rd graders, reveals that students may lose academic ground when transitioning to 4th grade, as Lamar’s 3rd graders scored 40.4% in reading while Travis’s 4th graders scored 34.1%. This points to potential curriculum gaps or teaching effectiveness issues that the district may need to address.
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