The top reported proficiency rate is 23% in English language arts. The lowest is 9% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Pasture Es
Big Pasture ES is a small, rural public school in Randlett, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade as part of the Big Pasture school district. The school sits in southern Cotton County, about a mile east of Interstate 44 at the intersection of U.S. Highways 70 and 277. This is a farming community with a sparse, car-dependent layout, and the school building functions as a central civic institution in a town where school and town life are closely interwoven.
The student body is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic population and smaller shares of students who are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, or identify as two or more races. Enrollment numbers are small enough that individual grade-level classes are intimate, which can mean more individualized attention from teachers, although it also means fewer peers per grade. The school does not serve grades above eighth, so families planning for high school would need to look ahead to the district’s next step, which the data does not detail here.
On state assessments, the picture is mixed with some important caveats. Several grade levels had results suppressed, a common practice when the number of test-takers is very small, which protects student privacy but makes it impossible to assess those grades publicly. Among the grades where results are reported, proficiency rates were low. In math, the reported grade levels showed roughly one in every ten students or fewer scoring at the proficient or above level. In English language arts, the rates were somewhat higher, though still below a third of students reaching that threshold. Science results for both tested grades were suppressed entirely. A parent evaluating this school will want to look into this further with the school, particularly to understand what academic supports are in place and how the school approaches instruction for the grades where public data is thin.
State testing underwent a cut-score change recently, which means trends from prior years are not directly comparable to the current year. That change makes it harder to know whether performance is shifting upward or downward. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages the reported rates across subjects and grades, places it below the midpoint among the three districts in Cotton County. This is a small comparison set. The gap between the lowest and highest district in the county is narrow, so being below the midpoint here is a modest distinction, not a wide gulf.
The community context is straightforward. Randlett is a small agricultural town that has seen population ups and downs over the decades. Many residents commute to Wichita Falls, Texas, or Lawton for work. Housing values in the area are notably lower than the state and national benchmarks, which typically makes homeownership more accessible here than in many parts of the country. The school district itself has a rural, consolidated character, having been formed from the merger of Devol, Randlett, and Union Valley schools. No recent district-level changes were identified in publicly available records that would alter the school’s day-to-day experience.
Program offerings for students, whether in the arts, career exploration, or special education, are not described in the available data. Similarly, information on student support services, class sizes, and teacher qualifications is absent from the record. For a family considering this school, direct outreach to the principal or district office would be the main way to get those specifics.
Big Pasture ES serves its community as a foundational school for younger students in a small, rural setting. The academic results from the most recent testing year are low in the grades where they can be seen, and the suppressed data leaves open questions about the grades that are not reported. The school’s small size is a defining feature, shaping both the possible benefits of close community ties and the limitations in comparing performance across small cohorts. This is a school where a personal visit and conversation with staff would tell a family more than the numbers alone can.
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