Summary:
Zip code 79347 in Muleshoe, Texas, is served by two elementary schools within the Muleshoe Independent School District (Isd), which together educate 704 students from Pre-K through 5th grade in a community with very high economic need.
Dillman Elementary serves the district's youngest learners (Pre-K through 2nd grade) with a larger enrollment of 400 students and a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.8:1. Mary Deshazo Elementary serves grades 3 through 5 with 304 students and a slightly lower ratio of 12.9:1. Both schools face significant challenges, with 87% of students at Dillman and 88.49% at Mary Deshazo qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The district spends over $12,400 per student at each school, a figure above the national average, yet this investment has not translated into strong academic outcomes. Mary Deshazo, the only school with standardized test data, shows STAAR proficiency rates well below the Texas state average in reading and math across all tested grades. For example, 3rd grade reading proficiency was 30.53% compared to the state average of 51.08%.
A critical concern is the declining performance trend at Mary Deshazo Elementary, which has dropped from the 36th percentile statewide in 2023-2024 to the 24th percentile in 2025-2026. This downward trajectory, combined with a 1-star rating from Schooldigger for both schools, indicates the district is falling further behind its peers. One notable exception is 5th grade science, where Mary Deshazo's 30.85% proficiency rate in 2024-2025 actually exceeded the state average of 29.57%, suggesting a potential area of strength. For parents, the data paints a picture of a small, unified district investing heavily in its students but struggling to overcome the academic hurdles associated with high poverty, with a clear need for improvement in foundational skills and a reversal of the recent downward trend.
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