The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Leslie a Stemmons El
Leslie A Stemmons Elementary serves children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Dallas. The school sits in an urban neighborhood where the vast majority of families qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a marker of economic need. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of Black, Asian, American Indian, and multiracial students, and white enrollment is minimal.
State assessment results from the most recent year show mixed performance across grade levels and subjects. In math, third graders performed relatively better, with about three in five reaching proficiency; fourth graders saw that drop to roughly half; and a very small group of fifth graders taking the Spanish-language math assessment did not meet the standard. English language arts results were similarly uneven. Third graders in the English version of the test reached proficiency at about one in three; fourth graders improved to about three in five; and fifth graders taking the Spanish version achieved proficiency at roughly one in three. Science results for fifth grade, also in Spanish, showed no students meeting the standard. Across all subjects, the school shows higher rates of students reaching the "approaches" level, meaning they are building toward proficiency, than reaching the higher "meets" and "masters" levels. Social studies proficiency is particularly low, with about one in seven students meeting the standard and only a handful mastering it.
The school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among districts in Dallas County, a positioning that reflects the diversity of achievement across the county's schools but should be weighed against the specific grade-level results visible in the data. Students show stronger ground in math than in English language arts, and performance weakens in the upper elementary grades. The dual-language testing in Spanish, evident in the fifth-grade results, indicates the school serves a bilingual or multilingual student population, though detailed English learner data was not available to assess the broader scope of language support.
The school is part of Dallas Independent School District, which in May 2026 approved a historic bond to replace aging schools and eliminate portable classrooms over the next several years. This reshapes the physical environment district-wide. The district has also shifted to an opt-out model for advanced coursework, automatically enrolling students who score well on state exams into honors-level math, reading, science, and social studies. Additionally, Dallas ISD adopted a new mathematics curriculum and reduced reliance on standardized test preparation by eliminating its internal ACP tests, aiming to shift focus away from teaching specifically to exams.
A parent may want to look further into how these district-level shifts, particularly the new math curriculum and the advanced enrollment policy, have rolled out at Stemmons and what tutoring or intervention supports are available for students who need additional help in reading and mathematics. The school's location in Dallas places it in a large, growing city with diverse neighborhoods and strong major employers, though the immediate area is economically challenged. A family choosing Stemmons would be selecting a neighborhood school serving a predominantly Hispanic, high-poverty student population with assessment results showing uneven proficiency across grades and subjects, and would benefit from direct conversation with school leadership about instructional priorities and student support systems.
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