Sundown J H

Sundown J H is a small, high-performing middle school in the rural community of Sundown, TX, serving 134 students in grades 6-8 within the highly-rated Sundown Independent School District (Isd).

This school consistently ranks among the top 10% of Texas middle schools, earning a 5-star rating and a 96th percentile ranking for the 2025-2026 school year. What makes Sundown J H truly stand out is its ability to achieve exceptional academic results despite over half of its students (51.49%) being economically disadvantaged. For example, 6th-grade math proficiency (89.74%) more than doubles the state average (38.57%), and 7th-grade math (88.37%) nearly triples it (29.41%). The school also shows remarkable improvement for specific student groups, with special education students jumping from the 55th to the 99th percentile in just two years. A key structural advantage is its very low student-teacher ratio of 10.5:1 and higher per-student spending of $14,013.

The contrast with nearby Levelland Middle, located just 12.55 miles away, is stark. While Sundown J H ranks in the 96th percentile, Levelland Middle ranks in the 13th percentile. Sundown J H outperforms Levelland Middle by 30 to 80 percentage points in every subject and grade level, such as 7th-grade math (88.37% vs. 6.99%). This comparison highlights how school quality can vary dramatically within a small geographic area, and that factors like district leadership and smaller class sizes can have an outsized impact on student success. The only relative weakness is 8th-grade social studies, where 47.73% of students are proficient—still above the state average of 31.69% but lower than the school’s own high standards in other subjects.