Kirksey El, Booker TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Kirksey El

Kirksey Elementary is a small, Pre-K through 5th grade school in Booker, a compact rural town in the Texas Panhandle's Lipscomb County. The school serves a tight-knit community where most families have roots; students are predominantly Hispanic and Latino, with a significant White population, and about two-thirds qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment runs small, with around a hundred and seventy students spread across seven grades.

Academically, the school's most recent testing shows a mixed picture that improves with grade level. In the tested grades, third grade performed weakly in mathematics, with the majority not meeting proficiency standards; fourth grade showed more than half of students reaching proficiency in math, and by fifth grade nearly two-thirds met that bar. English language arts was stronger across the board, with a majority meeting grade-level standards in both fourth and fifth grades, though third grade was softer. Fifth grade science proficiency was a genuine soft spot, with only about a quarter of students proficient. The school's overall proficiency measure across tested subjects places it above the midpoint among Lipscomb County's districts, a positioning that reflects the grade-level variability rather than uniform strength.

Booker ISD, the parent district, has faced a challenging financial year. In late 2023 the district brought a bond measure to voters seeking funding for structural repairs to buildings dating to the nineteen-eighties, tornado safety construction at the elementary level, security upgrades, and replacement of aging heating and air systems. For the current tax year, the district raised its property tax rate, increasing maintenance and operations revenue by a meaningful margin. These are concrete factors: a family relocating to Booker needs to weigh school facility conditions, ongoing property tax costs, and whether they align with what the district is offering.

The town itself is shrinking slowly, with a very modest population decline since 2020. It sits at the intersection of two state highways at the very top of the Panhandle, with open land and agriculture dominant. Housing is older, mostly single-family and owner-occupied, and affordable relative to state benchmarks. There is little retail or street life; Booker functions as a close-knit residential community where, by local account, everyone knows everyone. Kirksey Elementary sits downtown on Main Street, near the library and other civic anchors, rather than on an isolated campus. This places the school as a community hub and gathering point.

Booker offers a rural, family-centered school experience where the district is a major local institution. The academic foundation is reasonable, with notable strength in reading but gaps in math fluency at the early grades and concerning weakness in science. Parents should look into what supports the school has in place for third-grade math and fifth-grade science, and what the bond-funded tornado safety improvements mean for day-to-day school operations. The environment is stable and small, suited to families seeking a known, intimate community setting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 25 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 24%

▲ 1 pts above state median

This schoolBOOKER ISD, 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-income26%Higher-income78%52 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income78%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income82%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income5%Higher-income33%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income60%Higher-income44%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income61%Higher-income73%12 pp gap