The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on David E Smith El
David E. Smith Elementary sits on Layton Avenue in Haltom City, a working-class inner suburb of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, and it is a school whose physical circumstances are brand new even as its academic results reflect a student body navigating real challenges.
The school itself is genuinely new construction. As publicly reported, the 2022 Birdville ISD bond program consolidated Smith Elementary with the nearby W.T. Francisco Elementary, which the district determined was too small and too costly to maintain independently, onto the Smith site. The result is a rebuilt campus that opened in spring 2025. For families moving into the attendance zone, that means modern facilities replacing aging ones, and it means enrollment that now draws from two formerly separate communities.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with white students making up a smaller but present share and modest representation from Asian and Black students as well. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this squarely among higher-need elementary schools within Birdville ISD. English learner counts were not reported in the data available, but the testing picture offers a strong clue: a notable portion of state assessments in grades three through five were administered in Spanish rather than English, particularly in math and science, suggesting a meaningful Spanish-dominant population in the school.
The STAAR results for the most recent year available tell a mixed story that parents should understand clearly. Texas uses three performance tiers: Approaches, Meets, and Masters grade level. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, a substantial majority of students reached the Approaches threshold, which represents the minimum passing standard. Getting to the higher Meets standard, which Texas considers solid grade-level performance, was achieved by roughly four in ten students overall. Masters-level work, the highest tier, was reached by only a small fraction. In ELA, fifth graders performed noticeably better than third graders, with fifth-grade reading proficiency reaching well above half. Math results at grades four and five in the Spanish-administered version were very low, with no students reaching proficiency in those tested groups, though the third-grade Spanish math group fared better. The fifth-grade Spanish science group similarly showed no proficiency. Relative to districts across Tarrant County, Smith's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile of that comparison set, which parents should weigh alongside the school's demographic context and the fact that prior-year trend data was unavailable, making it impossible to assess whether performance is improving, flat, or declining.
A parent who wants to understand what these numbers mean in context, and what the school is doing in response, would do well to ask the principal directly.
The surrounding community is practical and affordable. Haltom City is car-dependent, with no concentrated walkable downtown, but it offers city parks with splash pads, a public library, and a recreation center with a pool and programs. Home values in the area run well below the Texas statewide median and substantially below the national median, and they have dipped modestly year over year. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, rising year over year, though the area remains affordable relative to much of the broader DFW region. The city is in active redevelopment, with a large mixed-use commercial project anchored by an H Mart grocery store under construction near Beach Street, new multifamily housing coming online, and older corridors like Belknap and Denton Highway targeted for revitalization through tax increment financing. The district's property tax rate has declined meaningfully over recent years, a relevant data point for buyers.
Birdville ISD voters in 2024 rejected a follow-on bond that would have built indoor athletic practice facilities at the district's three traditional high schools, so those projects will not proceed, relevant context for families thinking about the longer arc from this elementary school into district secondary programs.
For a family already in the Smith attendance zone or considering it, this is a freshly rebuilt campus in an affordable, changing neighborhood, serving a high-need population with test results that are below the county midpoint and warrant a closer conversation with the school about supports and trajectory.
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