The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Dr Frederick Douglass Todd Sr Middle
Dr. Frederick Douglass Todd Sr. Middle School is a Dallas ISD public middle school serving sixth through eighth grade on East Ledbetter Drive in the 75216 zip code, a part of southern Dallas. The school is a regular district campus, not a charter or magnet school.
The student body is relatively small for a three-grade middle school. Nearly the entire enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school among the highest-poverty campuses by that measure. Students are predominantly Black and Hispanic, with those two groups together making up the overwhelming share of the school's population. Data on English learner and special education counts were not available in what was provided.
State assessment results on the STAAR exam are the clearest thing a parent needs to understand before choosing this school, and they are low across every subject and grade. In math, proficiency rates in sixth and eighth grade are very low, and in seventh grade the share of students scoring at the meets-grade-level threshold or above is extremely small, close to negligible. Reading and language arts show somewhat better results, particularly by eighth grade, where roughly two in five students reach the proficiency threshold, though that still leaves the majority below it. Science and social studies scores for eighth graders are also low, with social studies in particular showing very few students at the passing benchmark. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school's proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile relative to the districts in Dallas County. A parent would reasonably want to ask the school directly about academic supports, intervention structures, and what progress looks like for individual students, because the aggregate results alone don't show the full picture of what teachers are doing or whether specific students are making gains.
Because only one year of data is available, there is no trend line to assess. Whether scores have been flat, declining, or improving from a prior low baseline simply cannot be determined from what was provided.
On the district side, there are a few things worth knowing. Dallas ISD publicly reported shifting to an opt-out model for advanced coursework, automatically enrolling students who perform well on state exams into honors-level math, reading, science, and social studies rather than requiring families to seek placement. That change was described as substantially broadening access to college-prep coursework, and it applies across the district. The district also publicly reported adopting a new math curriculum and eliminating its internal benchmark testing so instructional time is less dominated by test prep, though STAAR and end-of-course exams remain. And in May 2026, Dallas ISD voters approved a very large bond measure, publicly described as the largest in Texas history, which will fund replacement of aging school buildings, removal of portable classrooms across the district, and safety and technology upgrades over the coming years. Whether Todd Middle itself is among the campuses slated for reconstruction or upgrade is not specified in what was provided.
The housing market in the 75216 zip code shows home values considerably below both the Texas statewide median and the national median, and values have declined year over year. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, rising modestly. For families renting, the rent-to-income ratio sits near the standard affordability threshold. Southern Dallas more broadly is an area of active development interest, with publicly reported projects like University Hills near the UNT Dallas campus bringing new residential and commercial construction to the area.
Graduation rate data does not apply here because Todd Middle serves only sixth through eighth grade. No information was available on course offerings, extracurriculars, discipline rates, or chronic absenteeism for this campus. Those are gaps a parent would want to fill by contacting the school or the district directly.
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