Compass Rose Journey, Windcrest TX

Original Research by School Decision on Compass Rose Journey

Compass Rose Journey is a tuition-free public charter school in Windcrest, a small incorporated city in northeastern Bexar County that functions as an inner suburb of San Antonio. The school serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is part of the Compass Rose Public Schools network. It opened in the summer of 2021, making it a relatively young campus with only one year of state testing data currently available.

The school's defining characteristic is its curricular identity. Publicly reported descriptions from the network describe Journey as organized around a public health through nature-based learning model, with hands-on and place-based instruction. The network itself has described this as possibly the only public health-focused PK through sixth grade curriculum in the country, though that claim comes from Compass Rose's own public materials. A family choosing this school is choosing a specific pedagogical model, not a conventional elementary and middle school path, and that fit matters more here than it might at a general-enrollment campus.

On state assessments, the results from the most recent tested year are below the midpoint among districts in Bexar County, and parents should go in with clear eyes about what the data shows. Across tested subjects, fewer than half of students reached the approaches-grade-level threshold on the STAAR, and the share reaching the higher "meets" standard was considerably lower still. Reading through the grade-level detail, English language arts results are somewhat stronger in the sixth and seventh grade than in earlier or later grades. Math proficiency is thin at every tested grade, and eighth grade math results are particularly low. Science and social studies at eighth grade are weak as well, with no students at all reaching proficiency in social studies on the Spanish-version fifth grade science test. Some grade-level groups are very small, which means a handful of students can swing a result substantially, but the pattern is consistent enough across grades and subjects that it reflects a real gap, not statistical noise. A parent who wants to understand how the school is addressing these outcomes would do well to ask directly.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic and Black, with a very high share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a population that brings substantial economic need. English learner data and special education rates were not available in the data provided. The school's enrollment spans a full decade of grades from pre-K through eighth.

The parent district, Compass Rose Public Schools, received a D under the Texas Education Agency's most recent A-F accountability ratings, publicly reported in 2025. That rating covers the network, not Journey alone, but it is a signal worth weighing.

The housing market around Windcrest sits well below the Texas statewide median home value, and recent values have declined modestly year over year. Rents in the area are modest. This makes Windcrest accessible on price relative to much of the San Antonio metro. The city is largely built out with mid-century residential stock, bordered on three sides by San Antonio, and there is little new subdivision construction; what growth exists is commercial, centered on the redevelopment of the large former Rackspace campus into a business park. The community is quiet and residential, with civic life anchored by Takas Park and its trails, courts, and fields, and a long-running holiday lights tradition that draws visitors into neighborhood streets each December.

For a family drawn to a nature-based, public health-focused instructional model and comfortable with a newer charter campus that is still building its academic track record, Journey offers a genuinely distinct option in this part of Bexar County. The academic proficiency data is a real concern and warrants a direct conversation with school leadership about what supports are in place and how the school measures student growth over time.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 22% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 29% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 17% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 24% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 10% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 20% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

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

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 34% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 38% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 36% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 10% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 25% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 15% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

This schoolCOMPASS ROSE 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 7Lower-income38%Higher-income60%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income25%11 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income50%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income17%Higher-income0%17 pp gap