The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Doral Academy of Texas
Doral Academy of Texas is a newly opened tuition-free public charter school serving pre-kindergarten through seventh grade in Buda, within Hays County. The school launched its first year of operation in 2022-23 as a STEM-focused alternative and has open enrollment across multiple counties, with no geographic boundaries. It is expanding into ninth grade for the 2025-26 school year and pursuing approval to grow through twelfth grade, which would allow students to remain on the same campus from early childhood through high school graduation.
The school's academic results show uneven performance across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency ranges widely by grade: third and fourth graders show middling performance, fifth graders are weaker, but sixth and seventh graders demonstrate stronger results, and eighth graders show robust proficiency. Math proficiency is considerably lower, declining as students progress through middle school—third graders reach a moderate level, but by eighth grade the proficiency rate drops substantially. Science and social studies proficiency are markedly low, particularly at the eighth-grade level where very few students meet the proficiency threshold. Overall proficiency across all subjects and grades places the school above the midpoint among Hays County's districts, though this aggregate position masks the grade-by-grade volatility and the weak performance in mathematics and science.
A defining feature of Doral Academy's approach is its curriculum structure. Middle school students, including eighth graders, are already enrolled in high school-credit and advanced or pre-AP courses in subjects like biology, algebra, and computer science. This accelerated placement represents a deliberate pedagogical choice that families should understand: the school is pursuing academic rigor through acceleration and course compression. Parents considering this model need to weigh whether their child thrives with this intensity or whether it may contribute to the math and science proficiency gaps visible in the test data.
The school serves a student population of about three hundred children spanning pre-K through seventh grade, with enrollment distributed across multiple grade levels. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial white student population and a smaller but meaningful Asian student population. The school reports a chronic absenteeism rate that is lower than the median among its county peers, suggesting reasonable attendance engagement.
One substantive note: after the school's first full operational year, former teachers and staff publicly raised concerns about school policies and alleged retaliation. This incident, reported by local news sources, represents a real reputational and governance question that families evaluating the school may want to investigate directly with current administration or staff to understand what changed and how the school has addressed those issues.
The school is part of a relatively new charter network seeking to establish a permanent public education footprint in the greater Austin area, with open enrollment and no tuition. For families drawn to STEM education, acceleration, and a new school option without geographic constraints, Doral Academy offers something distinct in the region. Parents should approach the lower math and science proficiency results, the curriculum acceleration model, and the earlier staffing concerns as topics worth exploring in depth with the school itself before enrolling.
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