Kipp Pleasant Grove Leadership Academy, Balch Springs TX

Original Research by School Decision on Kipp Pleasant Grove Leadership Academy

KIPP Pleasant Grove Leadership Academy is a public charter school serving grades six through eleven in Balch Springs, a home-rule suburb in southeastern Dallas County. The school enrolls a student body that is majority Hispanic, with a large Black population and a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment spans multiple grade levels across a mid-sized campus.

The school's most recent state assessment results show a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, the school shows relative strength in eighth grade, where proficiency reaches the middle range, while sixth and seventh grades cluster lower. In mathematics, proficiency is considerably lower across all grades, with particularly weak performance in sixth and seventh grade where only a small portion of students meet the state standard. Science proficiency sits in the lower-middle range for eighth grade, and social studies performance at that grade level is similarly low. Across all subjects and tested grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among Dallas County districts.

The pattern suggests that students at Pleasant Grove are finding more traction with reading and language work than with quantitative reasoning or science content. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about how mathematics instruction is structured and what supports exist for students building foundational numeracy skills, particularly in the middle grades.

The school is part of KIPP Texas Public Schools, a charter network that has seen recent organizational changes. In December 2025 KIPP Texas voted to close seven campuses in Austin and San Antonio starting in 2026-2027, though Pleasant Grove in Balch Springs is not among those closures. At the district level, KIPP Texas' overall accountability rating improved from a D to a B between 2023 and 2025, a signal of sustained performance gains across the network.

Balch Springs itself is an established, car-dependent suburb with mid-century single-family housing and a straightforward, neighborly character. The city is actively building civic infrastructure, including a new planned downtown center along the Elam Road corridor that will consolidate city hall, police, courts, and mixed-use development. Recent capital projects have expanded pedestrian paths and safe-routes sidewalks near schools. The community has a library, recreation center with fitness and youth programs, several parks, and limited transit via a local bus route that connects to DART's Green Line into downtown Dallas. Housing values in the zip code are below the state benchmark, and rental costs are modest, making the area relatively affordable for families.

State testing data for grade nine, ten, and eleven students was not available in the reported results, so a fuller picture of high school academic performance cannot be drawn from this data. The school's graduation rate was also not provided, limiting visibility into longer-term outcomes for students who enter in sixth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 610%

School 10% · District 24% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 25% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 47% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 44% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 54% · ▲ 1 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Science

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 40% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 24% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

This schoolKIPP TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 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-income60%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income50%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income56%Higher-income43%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income9%Higher-income20%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income16%Higher-income13%3 pp gap