Laura B Wallace Middle, Kyle TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Laura B Wallace Middle

Laura B. Wallace Middle School sits on West Center Street in Kyle, a fast-growing Austin-area suburb that has expanded dramatically over the past two decades. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as part of Hays CISD, a district whose campus count has roughly tripled as Kyle, Buda, and north San Marcos have drawn waves of new residents. The enrollment at Wallace is mid-sized for a middle school of its grade span.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with white students making up a smaller but meaningful share and the remainder spread across several other racial and ethnic groups. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so the school serves a population with substantial economic need. Data on English learner enrollment and students with individualized education programs was not available in what we reviewed.

On the Texas STAAR assessments, the picture at Wallace is mixed and worth reading carefully. Reading and English language arts is the clearest strength: across all three grade levels, more than half of students tested at the proficient-or-above threshold, and eighth graders performed best of the three cohorts. Math tells a more complicated story. Sixth-grade math proficiency is low, seventh-grade math is the weakest result in the entire dataset, and eighth-grade math is meaningfully higher, though still below what one might hope. The gap between seventh and eighth grade is substantial enough that a parent of a seventh grader may want to ask the school directly about instructional supports in math at that level. Eighth-grade science comes in near the middle of the range, with roughly half of students reaching proficiency. Eighth-grade social studies is the lowest single result across all tested subjects and grades, and parents of students heading into that year may want to inquire about how the school approaches that content.

Placed against districts in Hays County, Wallace's overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint of that group, which is a fair context to keep in mind when reading the grade-level numbers above. Only a single year of data is available, so trend direction cannot be assessed.

No information was provided about program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, chronic absenteeism, or discipline practices. The district brief search was exhausted without surfacing confirmed parent-relevant changes to Hays CISD, so we left that section out rather than speculate.

Kyle itself shapes the experience in ways that matter to families thinking about where to live. Home values in the zip code are modestly below the Texas statewide benchmark and notably below the national figure, and they have declined year-over-year, which may affect the calculus for buyers. Rents have also edged down slightly. The city is publicly reported to be among the fastest-growing in the country and describes itself as only a fraction built out, with multiple master-planned communities under construction and a major mixed-use development called the Lake Park District planned near downtown. That growth means the school population will likely continue to shift, and families should expect the district to keep adding campuses. The city is car-dependent, though a publicly reported citywide trail network called The Vybe is being built out to connect neighborhoods and commercial corridors. Major local employers include the school district itself, a large regional medical center, and logistics and manufacturing operations tied to Amazon, Lowe's, FedEx, and Tesla, alongside a meaningful share of residents who commute out of Kyle toward Austin.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 33% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 14% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 47% · ▼ 5 pts below district

even with state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 753%

School 53% · District 55% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 58% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 28% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolHAYS 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 6Lower-income45%Higher-income63%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income46%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income54%Higher-income64%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income37%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income9%Higher-income21%12 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income48%13 pp gap