Step Charter El, Houston TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Step Charter El

STEP Charter El sits on South Wilcrest Drive in southwest Houston, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It is one of three campuses in the STEP Charter School network, which publicly reported an expansion from two to three locations when it added a West Airport campus in Southwest Houston. Each campus runs as a small K-8 school, and that deliberate small scale is a defining characteristic of how this network is built.

The school serves a predominantly Hispanic student body, with Black and Asian students also making up meaningful portions of enrollment. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this among the more economically disadvantaged populations in Harris County. Data on English learner status and students with IEPs was not available in this dataset, so parents with children who need those services may want to ask the school directly what support infrastructure is in place.

On STAAR results, the picture varies considerably by grade and subject. Reading and writing performance holds up reasonably well across most grade levels, with several grades reaching or exceeding the midpoint of test-takers at the proficient or above threshold. Math is more uneven: third and sixth grade results are solid, but fifth grade math proficiency drops noticeably below the others, which is a dip worth asking the school about. Science scores are a genuine soft spot. Fifth grade science proficiency sits well below the school's own averages in other subjects, and while eighth grade science is somewhat stronger, it still lands at a level that suggests students entering high school may need additional preparation there. The eighth grade social studies result is the lowest in the data set by a clear margin, with only a small fraction of tested students reaching proficiency. Families whose children are approaching middle school should know about this gap and may want to ask how the school is addressing it.

Relative to the other districts in Harris County, STEP Charter El's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint of that county set. That is a meaningful position given how competitive and varied the Houston-area school landscape is.

Publicly reported, the STEP Charter network received a B overall accountability rating from the Texas Education Agency in the most recent release, the first complete state A-F ratings issued since a multi-year legal dispute held them up. That rating applies to the network and gives families a current state-level signal about academic performance that had been missing for several years.

The surrounding southwest Houston neighborhood is shaped by everything that makes Houston distinctive as a city: no traditional zoning, so commercial strips, apartments, and single-family homes exist in close proximity along corridors like Wilcrest and Bissonnet. The area is car-dependent in the way most of Houston outside the urban core is, and the housing market near the school is meaningfully more affordable than the Texas state average, with home values running well below both the statewide and national medians. Rents in the zip code are modest and have been flat to slightly declining recently. For families relocating from higher-cost metros, the affordability here is genuine.

Houston itself is growing faster than almost any other large American metro by raw population additions, with growth increasingly spreading into suburban and exurban territory while inner Harris County holds steady. Schools like STEP Charter that sit within the city proper draw from a dense and diverse mix of families, and the network's small class size orientation is an intentional counterweight to the scale of the surrounding urban district.

A graduation rate does not apply here because STEP Charter El does not serve high school grades. Multi-year trend data for STAAR results covers only the most recent year, so there is no visible trajectory from prior years to assess whether scores are improving or declining. Program and course offerings data were not available, so details on enrichment, extracurriculars, or any specialized instructional approach beyond what the school communicates directly are not something this data can speak to.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 50% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 39% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 535%

School 35% · district not reported

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

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 55% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 48% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 53% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 455%

School 55% · district not reported

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 562%

School 62% · district not reported

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

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 61% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 43% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 63% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 45% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 22% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

This schoolSTEP 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-income63%Higher-income56%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income55%Higher-income56%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income57%Higher-income71%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income71%Higher-income50%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income50%0 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income69%Higher-income43%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income68%Higher-income50%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income56%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income43%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income62%Higher-income57%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income43%7 pp gap