Summary:
Zip code 77051 in Houston, Texas, is home to two elementary schools—Young Elementary and Reynolds Elementary—both serving pre-kindergarten through 5th grade within the Houston Independent School District (Isd). These are small schools with enrollments of 334 and 301 students, respectively, and both serve communities with very high economic need, as reflected in free/reduced lunch rates of 98.5% at Young and 93.36% at Reynolds.
Young Elementary stands out as the stronger performer in the area. Despite having a higher poverty rate, it consistently outperforms Reynolds Elementary in nearly every subject and grade level. Most notably, Young’s 5th-grade reading proficiency (59.52%) actually exceeded both the district (58.09%) and state (58.47%) averages in the 2025-2026 school year. Young has also shown an upward trajectory in its state ranking, improving from the 42nd percentile to the 22nd percentile over three years. It achieves these results while spending $678 less per student ($11,091 vs. $11,769) and maintaining a slightly lower student-to-teacher ratio (12.8:1 vs. 13.6:1).
In contrast, Reynolds Elementary faces significant academic challenges. Its math proficiency rates are critically low—only 11.36% of 3rd graders and 25% of 5th graders were proficient in math in 2025-2026, compared to state averages above 44%. An alarming data point is that 0% of Reynolds’ 5th graders were proficient in science in the 2024-2025 school year. The school’s ranking has been volatile, remaining in the bottom 20% of Texas elementary schools. A key takeaway for parents is that while both schools serve similar populations, Young Elementary demonstrates that strong academic outcomes are possible even in high-poverty settings, whereas Reynolds Elementary shows a critical need for targeted intervention, especially in math and science.
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