Steam Middle, Burleson TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Steam Middle

STEAM Middle sits on the southwestern side of Burleson, a fast-growing Fort Worth suburb in northern Johnson County. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school within Burleson ISD, and it is one of the district's publicly reported "schools of choice" offerings, meaning families apply through a lottery rather than attending by default neighborhood assignment. That structural detail matters for any family moving to the area: enrollment here is a deliberate choice, not an automatic one.

The school's academic results from the most recent STAAR testing are strong across most areas. In sixth and eighth grade math, the vast majority of tested students reached proficiency, and eighth grade ELA results were similarly high. Sixth grade ELA was also well above the midpoint. Science at eighth grade showed strong proficiency, and the overall proficiency index places STEAM Middle in the top quartile relative to districts in Johnson County, a meaningful position in a county with several systems to compare against. Seventh grade results were more mixed: math proficiency was noticeably lower than in the adjacent grades, and ELA in seventh grade lagged the school's own sixth and eighth grade performance by a meaningful margin. Eighth grade social studies proficiency sat below half of tested students, the one subject where results look soft. A parent who wants to understand what's behind the seventh grade dip and the social studies gap would do well to ask the school directly. Because only a single year of data is available, trend information does not yet exist, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving or holding steady.

Demographically, the school is majority white, with Hispanic students making up roughly a fifth of enrollment and smaller shares of Black, multiracial, and Asian students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a moderate share. Data on students with IEPs or English learners was not reported in what was provided.

The school sits in Burleson, which the available research describes as a city threading a genuine small-town character through rapid suburban expansion. The historic Old Town district along Main Street offers walkable blocks with local restaurants and shops, but the rest of the city, including the school campuses, is suburban and car-dependent. Burleson is one of the faster-growing cities in North Texas, with two large master-planned communities underway on the western edge and road infrastructure planned to match. Home values here run modestly above the Texas statewide benchmark and below the national one, with the area showing a slight year-over-year softening in prices and a small increase in rents. By standard affordability measures the market sits at a price-to-income ratio slightly above four, which is manageable relative to many Texas metros.

Burleson ISD passed a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election that raised the maintenance and operations tax rate, publicly reported as one of eleven Tarrant County-area districts to do so. This affects both the school portion of local property tax bills and the district's ability to retain teachers, so families buying in the area should factor it into their cost-of-ownership picture.

The schools-of-choice model is the defining structural feature of this district for relocating families. STEAM Middle is the middle school anchor of a theme that runs through a STEAM-focused elementary (Stribling) and connects to high school choice options including an early college program and a game development school. Families interested in STEAM Middle need to apply through the district's lottery process. Whether that structure is an asset or a complication depends entirely on where a family lands in the lottery and how they weigh the trade-off between a themed pathway and a guaranteed neighborhood assignment.

Graduation rate data does not apply to STEAM Middle since it does not serve high school grades. Civil rights data and chronic absenteeism data were not available in what was provided.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 49% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 39% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 873%

School 73% · District 34% · ▲ 39 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 678%

School 78% · District 57% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 50% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 884%

School 84% · District 60% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Science

Grade 882%

School 82% · District 56% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 32% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

This schoolBURLESON 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 6Lower-income60%Higher-income83%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income68%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income77%Higher-income86%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income51%Higher-income77%26 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income39%Higher-income58%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income52%Higher-income79%27 pp gap