Up Excellence Academy

Up Excellence Academy is a very small, standalone elementary charter school in Houston, TX, serving just 36 students from Pre-K through 5th grade, and it operates as its own single-school district, Up Excellence Academy, which ranks near the very bottom in Texas.

This school faces severe academic challenges, with overall state rankings placing it among the lowest-performing elementary schools in Texas. For the 2025-2026 school year, 0% of 5th graders were proficient in math, and reading proficiency rates hovered around 16-20%, far below the state average of 51-58%. This is a stark contrast to nearby schools like Marcella Elementary (0.42 miles away), where 5th-grade math proficiency was 58.97%, or Thompson Elementary (1.12 miles away), which achieved 65.38%. Despite a very low student-to-teacher ratio of 6:1—roughly half that of nearby schools like Milton Cooper Elementary (17:1)—the school's academic results are the worst in the area, suggesting deeper instructional or leadership issues rather than class size or poverty, as its low-income rate (66.67%) is actually lower than neighboring schools like Bussey Elementary (90% low-income).

Being a single-school district, Up Excellence Academy lacks the support systems and shared resources that larger districts like Aldine Independent School District (Isd) or Spring Independent School District (Isd) provide to their schools, which may contribute to its inability to improve. There is no evidence of an upward trend in test scores, and the school's performance for all student subgroups—including female students, low socioeconomic status students, and African American students—ranks in the bottom 2nd percentile statewide. For parents, this school offers small class sizes but has not demonstrated the ability to translate that into academic success, making it a significant concern compared to other options in the area.