Blackwell School, Blackwell TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Blackwell School

Blackwell School sits on the edge of ranch country where Nolan and Coke Counties meet in West Texas, a single PK-through-12 campus serving the town of Blackwell and the agricultural land around it. The enrollment is quite small even by rural Texas standards, with just a handful of students in most grade levels. Every child from pre-K through graduation walks through the same building, which means a student who starts here in kindergarten will know most of their classmates for the next thirteen years. Whether that continuity appeals or feels limiting depends entirely on the family.

The town itself, publicly reported as one of the more isolated incorporated places in Nolan County, developed as a railroad-era trading center and has stayed oriented around ranching ever since. Most residents own their homes. Sweetwater, the county seat, provides the regional employment base and main commercial amenities, while Blackwell's own economy draws on agriculture, the school district itself as a local anchor institution, and wind energy operations including wind farms publicly reported in the area. Oak Creek Reservoir a few miles southeast offers fishing, boating, and camping. There is no public library or fixed-route transit serving the town. Families here drive, and the town is car-dependent in the way most small West Texas communities are.

On STAAR results, the picture varies by grade and subject in ways worth reading closely. In the early elementary grades, math proficiency is a genuine strength: third graders tested at a very high rate, well above what most Texas schools post. Reading in those same grades also runs solidly above average for the state. The pattern shifts as students move through middle school. Fourth and eighth grade math proficiency drops to around the midpoint or below statewide norms, and seventh grade reading came in below half of tested students reaching proficiency, which is a soft spot a parent may want to ask the school about directly. Science sits in a moderate range across the tested grades. The eighth grade social studies result was quite low, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency; given the very small number of students tested in that cohort, a single year's result can swing dramatically, but it is worth noting. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, Blackwell School's overall proficiency index places it at the top of the three districts in Nolan County, relative to districts in Nolan County, which provides some useful local context even if it reflects the limited size of that comparison set.

The STAAR trend data covers only a single year, so there is no multi-year trajectory to assess. Free and reduced-price lunch rates, chronic absenteeism, and discipline data were not available in the data provided. A graduation rate was not reported, which is worth following up on with the district.

The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up a meaningful share and very small numbers of other backgrounds. Free and reduced-price lunch counts were not reported, so economic context for the student population is not available here.

Housing in the area runs well below state and national medians, and estimated monthly carrying costs on a typical home are modest relative to national benchmarks. The population has fluctuated at a very small scale over the decades, with recent estimates pointing in conflicting directions, and no major new housing development was identified in publicly reported sources. This is a stable, slow-moving community rather than one in transition.

No information on AP courses, dual credit, career pathways, or other upper-level program offerings was available in the data provided. Given the size of the high school grades, the range of elective and advanced coursework will almost certainly be narrower than what a larger district offers. Families weighing Blackwell School for their high school student would do well to ask the district specifically what upper-level academic options exist and how students access courses beyond what the campus can staff internally.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 18 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,779 schools plotted. 59 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 392%

School 92% · District 92%

▲ 52 pts above state median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 670%

School 70% · District 70%

▲ 36 pts above state median

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 37 pts above state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 8 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 385%

School 85% · District 85%

▲ 39 pts above state median

Grade 477%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 678%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Science

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 39 pts above state median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 25%

▲ 1 pts above state median

This schoolBLACKWELL CISD, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income100%60 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income75%55 pp gap