The top reported proficiency rate is 44% in Math. The lowest is 34% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Moss El
Moss Elementary serves kindergarten through second grade in Big Spring, a county-seat city of modest size in West Texas where oil-and-gas, healthcare, and transportation logistics anchor the economy. The school sits in a stable neighborhood setting with straightforward car-dependent access typical of the region.
The enrollment is small for its grade band, drawing roughly evenly across the three grades. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic circumstances of the families served. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with meaningful shares of white and multiracial students and very small representation of other groups. English learner and special-education enrollment numbers were not available in the data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those programs and their reach.
Moss Elementary's academic profile comes from testing data that is now nearly a decade old, a significant limitation. The available results, from 2016-17 for grades three and four math and language arts, and 2014-15 for grade five science, show proficiency rates that trail the county median. In math, third-grade proficiency was below the county range, while fourth-grade performance sat closer to midpoint but still below it. Language arts showed a similar pattern: third-grade results lagged the county, and fourth-grade improved but remained below median. A science snapshot from 2014-15 showed proficiency also below the county midpoint. Overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades placed the school below the midpoint among Howard County districts.
The critical gap here is recency. No assessment results are available from 2017-18 onward, making it impossible to say whether the school's proficiency trajectory has shifted since those early results. A parent evaluating Moss would want current testing data and should ask the school and district directly about recent academic performance, what interventions or program changes have taken place since 2016-17, and how the school measures progress in reading and math among its primary-grade students.
The school operates within Big Spring ISD, a district that faced a significant funding decision in May 2024 when voters defeated a bond package that included a planned new high school. The result means older facilities remain across the district's upper grades, and the high school building a family's child might eventually attend is the existing aging structure. The bond defeat also left any planned facility expansion or renovation unfunded, a context that shapes the district's resource picture going forward.
Big Spring itself is a stable but slowly declining community. The city sits at a highway and rail crossroads with a historic downtown anchored by restored civic and commercial buildings, but the broader housing stock is older, with limited new construction. Median home prices are well below the Texas average, and rental costs track affordability metrics that are reasonable by national standards. The local economy provides steady employment in public institutions, healthcare, refining, and logistics, but growth has not kept pace with comparable cities. For families in the area, Moss Elementary represents a neighborhood primary school serving a high-poverty, predominantly Hispanic population with proficiency rates that, as last measured years ago, fell below county benchmarks. Current performance data and a direct conversation with school leadership about recent progress would be the next step for any family considering enrollment.
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