The top reported proficiency rate is 19% in English language arts. The lowest is 9% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Pillow El
Pillow Elementary sits in the Crosscreek Drive area of Austin, a regular public school in Austin ISD serving children from pre-K through fifth grade. The enrollment is modest for a school covering that full span of early grades, with a sizeable pre-K cohort making up a meaningful portion of the student body. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of Black, white, and Asian students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community with significant economic need.
The STAAR results reported for the most recent school year are a clear soft spot that parents should look at carefully. Across tested grades and subjects, proficiency at the "meets grade level" standard is low, and the share reaching "masters" level is very small. In reading and language arts, about a third of tested students meet grade level across grades where results were reported; in math the share is lower still; in science it is quite low. The "approaches grade level" rate, which reflects a lower threshold, is higher across subjects but still leaves most students below that bar in several areas. Compared to other districts in Travis County, Pillow sits in the bottom quartile on the overall proficiency index. There is only one year of data available, so trend direction cannot be assessed. Given these numbers, a parent would reasonably want to have a direct conversation with the school about how it is monitoring student progress and what support structures are in place. It is also worth noting that a meaningful share of tested students took the Spanish-language STAAR, which signals a bilingual or dual-language program presence, though the data here does not describe the program in detail.
Austin ISD is navigating considerable institutional turbulence right now, and it touches families at Pillow in specific ways. The district approved a consolidation plan, publicly reported in late 2025, that closes a number of elementary schools before the 2026-27 school year and reassigns students districtwide. Several dual-language programs are being relocated as part of that process. Pillow is not named among the schools slated to close, but boundary changes and program relocations in the surrounding area can affect peer composition and commute patterns for families nearby. At the same time, the district is implementing state-mandated turnaround plans at a number of campuses, and the board has tied those plans to avoiding state intervention. Pillow's own standing under those mandates was not specified in the data available.
On the funding side, Austin ISD voters passed a tax-rate increase in late 2024, publicly reported, that raises property tax bills modestly for homeowners in the district and directs new revenue toward staff raises and deficit reduction. A large bond passed in 2022, one of the largest in Central Texas history, is funding facility modernizations across campuses, with several elementary rebuilds already complete. Whether Pillow is among the campuses receiving bond-funded upgrades was not specified in the data here.
The housing market around the school reflects the broader Austin reality: home values in the zip code are well above the Texas statewide median and substantially above the national median, and they have edged down slightly over the past year. Rents have nudged upward. Monthly ownership costs on a typical home in the area would consume a significant share of household income relative to national norms. Austin itself is one of the fastest-growing large metros in the country, with substantial new apartment construction, though construction starts slowed notably in 2024. The city is dense near its core and increasingly mixed-use in areas like The Domain, but the neighborhood where Pillow sits reads more as established residential Austin, the kind of mid-city fabric that predates the recent growth surge.
Program details for Pillow specifically were not available in the data. Civil-rights data, chronic absenteeism rates, and special-populations counts were also not reported, so those dimensions of the school's environment cannot be characterized here. A graduation rate does not apply, since Pillow serves only elementary grades.
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