The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cayuga El
Cayuga Elementary sits on a shared campus along US Highway 287 in Tennessee Colony, a small, rural, unincorporated community in northwestern Anderson County. The campus houses the district's elementary, middle, and high schools together, which means a child can move through the entire Cayuga ISD experience without ever changing buildings. The community itself is dispersed along farm-to-market roads with no downtown, no municipal services, and no transit. The dominant employers in the area are the Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional facilities that use the Tennessee Colony mailing address, and the local civic anchors are the school campus, a volunteer fire department, and a water utility. A family moving here is choosing a distinctly rural, small-community setting.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Enrollment is small relative to comparable elementary schools. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a substantial share of families face economic constraints. The student population is predominantly white, with Hispanic and Black students each making up a minority share and smaller numbers of students from other backgrounds. English learner and special education counts were not available in the data provided.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, third- and fourth-grade math and reading proficiency each land roughly in the mid-forties, and fifth-grade math is similar. Fourth-grade reading is the clearest bright spot, with nearly two-thirds of students reaching the meets-grade-level threshold. Fifth-grade reading and fifth-grade science are weaker, with science proficiency particularly low. Across all tested subjects and grades, Cayuga Elementary's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among districts in Anderson County, based on that county comparison set. The share of students reaching the masters level, the highest STAAR performance tier, is small across subjects, and masters rates in social studies are especially thin. Only one year of data was available, so it is not possible to describe a trend. A parent who wants to understand whether performance has been improving, holding steady, or declining would need to ask the school directly.
The Texas STAAR system reports three performance levels: approaches, meets, and masters grade level. The approaches rate, which captures students who meet the minimum passing threshold, runs meaningfully higher than the meets rate across subjects, meaning a meaningful number of students are passing at the lower threshold but not reaching grade-level proficiency by the meets standard. That gap is worth a conversation with teachers about where individual children fall.
On the community and housing side, local home values sit modestly above the Texas statewide benchmark and somewhat below the national figure, with a year-over-year increase. Rental data for this zip code was not available. The price-to-income ratio is relatively modest by national standards, which reflects the rural, lower-income character of the area.
In terms of recent district activity, voters approved two bond propositions in May 2024 to fund facility construction and renovation, covering agricultural science and career-and-technology education facilities, electrical infrastructure, parking, and athletic complex upgrades. These bonds are repaid through a property tax without a rate limit, which is a long-term commitment that any household purchasing property in the district would carry. A larger bond package had failed at the ballot just the year before, and the scaled-back version that passed reflects a community that weighs tax impact carefully.
No program offerings data was provided, and chronic absenteeism and graduation rate figures do not apply here since the school serves only elementary grades.
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