The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Science. The lowest is 40% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Blakemore Middle
Blakemore Middle sits at the center of one of the most unusual school settings in Texas. Boys Ranch is not a town in any conventional sense. It is an unincorporated campus community in the rolling hills of the Texas Panhandle, built entirely around Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, a privately funded residential childcare organization for at-risk youth that has operated on the site of the old Panhandle cattle-country town of Tascosa for generations. The population living there is largely staff, their families, and the young people in Cal Farley's care. There are no storefronts, no sidewalk districts, no municipal government. The community's civic anchors are the campus itself: group homes, a working ranch with horse arenas and livestock barns, a gymnasium, a natatorium, a chapel, a ropes course, and the historic Tascosa courthouse that now houses the Julian Bivins Museum.
Boys Ranch ISD, the district Blakemore Middle belongs to, was formally recognized by the State Board of Education as a special-purpose district a few years ago, with certain standard Texas Education Code provisions waived to reflect its unique governance. It is funded partly through state and federal education dollars and partly through Cal Farley's own contributions, rather than a conventional local property tax base. This structural difference is worth understanding before drawing any comparison to a typical Texas school district.
Blakemore Middle serves sixth through eighth grade and is classified as an alternative school. Enrollment is very small, with roughly equal cohorts spread across the three grade levels. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data, special education rates, and English learner counts were not reported in the available data. Racial and ethnic composition shows a majority white student body, a substantial Hispanic share, and small numbers of Black and multiracial students.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, the school's results show a mixed picture that varies meaningfully by grade and subject. Seventh grade was the strongest cohort across both reading and math, with roughly three in five students reaching proficiency in each. Eighth grade performed well in reading and science, with close to seven in ten students reaching proficiency, but math proficiency for eighth graders was notably lower. Sixth grade showed the most ground to cover, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency in reading and about a quarter in math. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint relative to the other districts in Oldham County, which is the relevant comparison set given the county's small number of districts. Science results for eighth graders were among the stronger showings. Social studies landed at roughly the midpoint of proficiency for eighth graders. Because only a single year of data is available, trend analysis cannot be done, and a parent wanting to understand trajectory would need to ask the school directly.
The "approaches grade level" threshold, which is Texas's baseline performance standard, is cleared by a large majority of students across subjects, which is a different and more encouraging picture than the "meets" or "masters" levels. The share reaching the top "masters" tier is modest across all subjects, which is worth a parent noting if advanced academic progression is a priority.
The community itself has seen a gradually declining resident population in recent years, with Cal Farley's recent growth focused less on adding homes to the main campus and more on expanding alumni and community-based services in Amarillo, including a new alumni transition facility that publicly opened around 2025 and a second alumni housing site expected to open in 2026. Amarillo is roughly a half-hour drive from campus.
For a parent whose family lives and works on the Boys Ranch campus, Blakemore Middle is the school their children attend. For a family considering employment at Cal Farley's, the school is part of the same intentional, structured environment that defines daily life at Boys Ranch. Housing market data and walkability context do not apply here in the usual way, because the campus is a closed residential community rather than a real estate market someone can enter or exit independently. Program offerings beyond what the STAAR data reveals were not available in the data we reviewed, so a parent with specific questions about electives, sports, counseling, or support services would want to contact the school directly.
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