Summary:
In zip code 78520, there is one middle school, Stell Middle, serving grades 6 through 8 in Brownsville, Texas, within the Brownsville Independent School District (Isd), where over 91% of students are economically disadvantaged.
Stell Middle presents a striking paradox: it excels in advanced high school-level End-of-Course (EOC) exams while struggling in standard grade-level courses. In the 2025-2026 school year, the school’s proficiency rates in Algebra I (87.88%), Biology (95.56%), and English I Reading (98.51%) dramatically exceeded both the district and state averages, indicating a highly effective advanced program. However, general performance is a major concern, particularly in 7th Grade Mathematics, where only 1.64% of students met proficiency—far below the state average of 29.41%. Similarly, 8th Grade Science (17.01%) and Social Studies (21.88%) scores are significantly below state benchmarks. The school’s overall state ranking has remained low, hovering around the 28th to 32nd percentile over the last three years.
Despite a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.1:1 and per-student spending of $11,035, the school’s resources do not appear to translate into broad academic success for the general student body. The 7th Grade Math crisis suggests a specific, systemic issue with that grade level’s curriculum or instruction. The school’s dropout rate (0.4%) is slightly better than the district average (0.5%), a positive sign for retention. For parents, this data reveals a school that can produce exceptional results for students in advanced coursework but faces significant challenges in ensuring all students meet grade-level standards in core subjects like math and science.
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