Summary:
In zip code 76661, there is only one elementary school, Marlin Elementary, which serves grades PK through 6 and is part of the Marlin Independent School District (Isd), a district ranked in the bottom 2% of Texas.
Marlin Elementary has consistently ranked in the bottom 10% of Texas elementary schools over the last three years, with a 2025-2026 ranking of 4,425 out of 4,627 schools (4th percentile). The school spends $14,065 per student, which is significantly higher than the state average, yet academic performance is dramatically lower. For example, in 2025-2026, 3rd-grade math proficiency was just 5.45% compared to the state average of roughly 38%, and 5th-grade science proficiency in 2024-2025 was a catastrophic 2.13% versus the state average of 29.57%. The school's student-teacher ratio is 17.6:1, and 98.54% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating extreme economic disadvantage.
Despite the overall low performance, there was one notable bright spot: in the 2024-2025 school year, 5th-grade math proficiency reached 54.17%, exceeding the state average of 46.24%. However, this success was not sustained, as the score dropped to 20% the following year. This volatility suggests that while individual cohorts or teachers can achieve success, the system struggles to replicate it consistently. The data shows no clear pattern of students improving as they progress through the grades, with early-grade foundational knowledge being critically weak, making later progress extremely difficult.
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