Chireno El, Chireno TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Chireno El

Chireno Elementary sits on Main Street in the small East Texas town of Chireno, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade within Chireno ISD. Because the school covers both elementary and middle grades in a single building, it functions as the community's one-stop academic home before high school. Enrollment is modest for a PK-8 span, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding area. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic and Black students making up most of the remaining population.

The most pressing thing a prospective family should know right now is that this school has been through significant physical disruption. A December 2025 electrical fire damaged classrooms and filled the elementary building with smoke, displacing close to ninety pre-K through third-grade students into a portable building through at least the spring semester. That disruption is the direct backdrop for a bond measure that Chireno ISD voters narrowly approved in May 2026, publicly reported across multiple local outlets. The bond funds a new elementary building along with infrastructure upgrades and an improved drop-off lane, with officials estimating roughly a two-to-three-year construction timeline before the new building opens. For families with young children, the temporary learning conditions in portable classrooms are the current reality, while the longer-term picture is a purpose-built replacement campus. On property taxes, publicly reported coverage notes that because of layered homestead exemptions, the average-priced home in the district pays no school property taxes, and only homes above a certain value threshold would see any bond-related impact.

On academic performance, the school's results from the most recent STAAR testing show a mixed picture. Reading and language arts proficiency is relatively stronger, with fourth- and eighth-grade ELA results sitting in the moderate range, and the school's aggregate ELA "approaches grade level" rate is the highest of the four tested subjects. Math results are uneven across grade levels: the eighth-grade cohort performed notably well, while sixth and seventh grade math proficiency was lower. Science results at both tested grade levels were below the midpoint, and eighth-grade social studies proficiency was quite low. Across all tested subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint relative to districts in Nacogdoches County. The share of students reaching the "masters" level, Texas's highest performance band, is thin across every subject. Trend data is limited to a single year, so there is no multi-year trajectory available to assess whether results are improving, holding, or declining. Parents who want more context on instructional supports and intervention programs may want to ask the school directly.

The one formally documented program offering is a business pathway under career and technical education. AP and dual-credit offerings are not listed in the available data, which is consistent with the school's PK-8 grade band; those pathways would be found at the high school level within the district.

The Chireno housing market is considerably more affordable than both the Texas state median and the national median, and recent home values in the area have declined modestly year over year. Rental data was not available. The relatively low price-to-income ratio suggests that housing costs are not a significant barrier for most families considering the area, though the local economic base and employment context were not captured in the research available for this profile.

The locale brief for Chireno returned no results on walkability, major employers, civic anchors, or community character before the research budget was exhausted, so those dimensions are left out rather than guessed at. Chireno is a small rural community in Nacogdoches County, and families relocating from a more urban or suburban setting should weigh what that means for day-to-day access to amenities and services.

The school's chronic absenteeism and graduation rate data were not available in the provided data; graduation rate does not apply here given the grade band, but absenteeism is a gap a parent may want to raise with the district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 28%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 25 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 46%

even with state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

even with state median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Science

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 10 pts below state median

This schoolCHIRENO 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-income44%Higher-income56%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income22%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income59%Higher-income30%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income52%Higher-income67%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income56%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income33%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income27%Higher-income30%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income53%Higher-income100%47 pp gap