Summary:
Zip code 77613 is home to a single school, China Elementary, which serves grades PK through 5 and is part of the highly-rated Hardin-Jefferson Independent School District (ISD), a district ranked in the top 22% of Texas schools with a 4-star rating. With 600 students and a favorable student-teacher ratio of 14.2:1, the school offers a solid foundation, but its academic performance tells a more complex story of inconsistency and recent decline.
China Elementary shows significant variability across grades and subjects. The standout bright spot is 4th-grade math, where 58.43% of students scored proficient in 2025-2026, outperforming both the district (55.98%) and state (49.28%) averages—a remarkable reversal from the previous year. However, this success is an exception. In most other areas, the school lags behind its excellent district, with 5th-grade reading (47.75% proficient) and 3rd-grade math (38.14% proficient) falling well below district benchmarks. Science is a critical weakness, with only 28.71% of 5th graders proficient, a concerning figure as students prepare for middle school.
The school's state ranking has dropped from the 56th percentile to the 46th percentile in just one year, and 2025-2026 test scores declined in five of six core subjects compared to the prior year. Despite spending $8,861 per student and maintaining small class sizes, these resources are not translating into consistent academic gains. The success of the 4th-grade math program offers a potential model for improvement, but the overall trend suggests a need for targeted instructional support, particularly in 3rd and 5th-grade reading and math, and a critical overhaul of the science curriculum to reverse the school's downward trajectory.
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