Driscoll El & Middle, Driscoll TX

Original Research by School Decision on Driscoll El & Middle

Driscoll El & Middle is the sole school in Driscoll ISD, a small public pre-K through eighth grade campus sitting on West Dragon Street in the town of Driscoll, about 22 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. Because the district ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school program here; families with students approaching ninth grade will need to plan for a transition elsewhere.

The school's student body is almost entirely Hispanic or Latino, with a very small share identifying as white. The great majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this among the higher-need campuses in Nueces County. English learner and special education population data were not available in what was provided.

On the Texas STAAR assessment, the picture is uneven across subjects and grade levels. Reading and English language arts is the clearer strength. Proficiency rates in ELA climb through the grades, from a solid showing in third grade to strong results by seventh and eighth grade, where majorities of tested students are reaching the meets-grade-level standard. Science at eighth grade is also a bright spot, with most eighth graders demonstrating proficiency. Math tells a different story. Rates in the elementary grades are low, and while seventh grade math stands out as a relative high point, third and sixth grade math results are quite weak. Fifth grade science proficiency is very low. Eighth grade social studies proficiency is below where most families would want to see it. For context, when the school's overall proficiency index is measured relative to districts in Nueces County, it sits right at the midpoint of that group. That is not a failing position, but it does signal that math and science in the lower and middle grades are areas a parent would want to ask the school about directly.

The district's own improvement plan calls for adopting a new K-5 math curriculum, an explicit acknowledgment that elementary math instruction needed rethinking. That is a meaningful signal to weigh alongside the current test data, since a curriculum change of this kind can take a few years to show up in results. The district has also adopted a cell phone restriction policy for the instructional day, consistent with a statewide Texas law that took effect in fall 2025.

The town itself is very small, car-dependent, and organized mainly around U.S. Highway 77, which is being upgraded to interstate standards as part of the future I-69E corridor. Most residents rent rather than own. The local employment base is thin, with most jobs reached regionally in Corpus Christi. Driscoll's population has trended gently downward over recent decades, and no new housing development specific to the town was found in the data. Housing costs in this context are modest relative to the broader region.

Because the school is also the community's main civic anchor, families living in Driscoll are generally choosing this school by geography rather than by comparison shopping. For those moving to the area with this school in mind, the ELA trajectory through the middle grades and the eighth grade science results offer genuine encouragement. The math gap, particularly in the younger elementary grades, is something worth discussing with the school, especially for families whose children are entering or currently in grades three through six.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 622%

School 22% · District 22%

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

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 70%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 26%

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

This schoolDRISCOLL 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.