Summary:
The two public schools serving zip code 78881 in Sabinal, Texas, are Sabinal Elementary (grades PK-6) and Sabinal Secondary (grades 7-12), both part of the Sabinal Independent School District (Isd), which is ranked in the 21st percentile statewide and serves a community with significant socioeconomic challenges.
Sabinal Elementary is the stronger school overall, though its performance is inconsistent. It showed a promising upward trend, reaching the 64th percentile (3 stars) in 2024-2025, with standout math scores in 3rd and 5th grade that exceeded state averages. However, its ranking dropped to the 38th percentile in 2025-2026, and test scores are highly volatile from year to year, likely due to a very high poverty rate of 90.34%. In contrast, Sabinal Secondary struggles persistently, ranking in the 29th percentile (1 star) for two consecutive years before a slight improvement to the 40th percentile. The middle school years are a critical point of failure: 6th-grade reading proficiency at the elementary school was 61.29%, but that rate plummeted to 36.36% for the same cohort as 7th graders at the secondary school. Math proficiency is alarmingly low, with only 15.15% of 7th graders and 13.33% of 8th graders meeting standards.
A key paradox is that Sabinal Secondary spends a high $21,216 per student—well above the elementary school's $17,580—yet produces some of the lowest test scores in the area, suggesting resource utilization or other factors are at play. Despite these struggles, there are glimmers of hope: high school English I Reading scores (58.14%) actually beat the state average, and the graduation rate is a solid 90.6%. The district's high poverty rate and the dramatic drop in performance between elementary and secondary school are the most important factors for parents to consider when evaluating schools in this area.
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