The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on St Anthony Academy
St. Anthony Academy is a small charter school on Dallas's south side serving kindergarten through fifth grade, with an enrollment of about two hundred students. The vast majority of students are African American, and a large majority qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing it in a community of significant economic need. What sets this school apart is its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme designation, achieved in May 2021 after a six-year authorization process. The school is one of only a handful of IB PYP-authorized campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the only charter school with that credential, centering its academic identity on inquiry-based, internationally minded learning rather than traditional grade-level instruction alone.
The state assessment picture shows measurable academic work underway, though with a pattern worth understanding. In third-grade English and language arts, about half of students reached proficiency. By fourth grade, roughly six in ten students were proficient in ELA, a relative strength, while math proficiency dropped to about half. Fifth grade shows a steeper challenge: ELA proficiency was around four in ten, math around one in five, and science proficiency was exceptionally low at about three percent. Across all tested grades and subjects, the overall proficiency rate was above the midpoint among Dallas County's districts, meaning the school is outperforming many of its neighbors on raw test measures.
This uneven profile across grades and subjects suggests the school may be working with students who enter with varied academic preparation, and that the IB approach, which emphasizes conceptual learning and cross-disciplinary inquiry, may not yet fully translate to the specific skills tested in state assessments, especially in science. The steep drop in science proficiency in fifth grade is notable and a parent may want to explore further with the school whether science instruction is resourced similarly to ELA and math, or whether curriculum changes in the upper grades account for the gap.
The school operates within St. Anthony School district, which received a D accountability rating for the 2024-2025 school year under Texas's A-F system. This rating followed a multi-year legal dispute over score release and reflects performance against the state's revised, more stringent benchmarks set in recent years. For a family considering this school, that district rating is part of the broader context, though it applies district-wide rather than to the academy campus alone.
Housing in the school's Dallas zip code has been declining modestly in value year over year, while rents have ticked upward, reflecting broader housing market pressure. The neighborhood itself is part of southern Dallas, an area experiencing significant new residential and commercial development, including a major mixed-use project near the adjacent University of North Texas campus. Dallas overall is in active growth mode, with strong employment anchored by corporate headquarters and a diverse economy spanning defense, technology, health care, and manufacturing.
For a family drawn to the IB framework and its emphasis on global-mindedness and inquiry, St. Anthony Academy offers a distinct pedagogical pathway at no tuition cost as a public charter. The school's small size and majority-Black, economically vulnerable enrollment create a particular peer and community context. The test data shows the school is holding its own against county neighbors on proficiency measures overall, though the grades reveal inconsistency and significant need in upper elementary math and science. This is a school in a specific niche, serving students with real economic barriers, and working toward an ambitious curricular vision; a parent should come to it with clear understanding of what IB Primary Years means in practice and realistic expectations about how that pedagogy will manifest in state test performance.
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