Nolan Creek School, Belton TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Nolan Creek School

Nolan Creek School is a public charter school in Belton, Texas, serving kindergarten through seventh grade and operated under the Orenda Charter School district. The enrollment is small for a K-7 campus, which gives the school a noticeably intimate feel compared to most traditional elementary and middle schools in Bell County.

On the Texas STAAR assessment, the picture varies considerably by subject and grade. Reading and language arts is the clearer strength: third graders performed well, and seventh graders showed solid proficiency, with other grades landing in a moderate range. A large share of tested students across all grades approached grade level in ELA, which is a positive baseline, and the proportion meeting the higher "meets grade level" standard in reading was meaningfully stronger than in math. Math results tell a more uneven story. Fifth graders were the strongest performers in math, but fourth and sixth grade results were moderate, and seventh grade math proficiency was quite low, with most students in that cohort not reaching the meets-grade-level threshold. Science results from the tested fifth-grade year fell roughly in the middle range. Across all tested subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint relative to districts in Bell County. That positioning is worth holding in mind alongside the grade-by-grade variation, particularly in math at the upper grades.

No multi-year trend data was available for Nolan Creek, so there is no way from this data to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining. Only the most recent year is on record. Graduation rate is not applicable here because the school does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported.

Demographic information is partial. The school's student body is majority white, with Hispanic students making up roughly a quarter of enrollment and Black and multiracial students accounting for most of the remainder. Free-and-reduced-price lunch participation, special education rates, and English learner rates were not reported in the available data, so the economic and services profile of the student body is unclear. A parent interested in what support services the school provides would want to ask the school directly.

The charter structure means enrollment is open across attendance zones, so families choosing Nolan Creek are opting in rather than being assigned. Publicly reported information about Orenda's broader network suggests the organization has been actively expanding, with construction projects and new campuses in the Georgetown area, though those developments are geographically separate from the Belton campus and would not directly affect what Nolan Creek itself offers. Program information for Nolan Creek specifically was not available in the data provided.

Housing near the school sits close to the Texas statewide median, with home values running slightly above that benchmark. Rents in the area are modestly below the statewide typical figure. Both values have drifted slightly downward in the past year, which contrasts with modest national appreciation over the same period. The Belton locale brief returned no usable sourced information on employers, civic anchors, or community character, so that context was left out rather than filled in with guesses.

For families weighing this school, the core questions are about math support in the middle grades, where results are noticeably softer, and about what the small size means for peer exposure and program breadth. Those are worth exploring directly with the school, since the data alone does not explain the causes or the school's plan for addressing them.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 63% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 58% · ▼ 34 pts below district

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

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 46% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 48% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 27% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 375%

School 75% · District 73% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 74% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 69% · ▼ 15 pts below district

even with state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 80% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 81% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 43% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

This schoolORENDA CHARTER SCHOOL, 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 3Lower-income80%Higher-income71%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income73%40 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income60%Higher-income43%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income27%10 pp gap