Murry Fly El, Odessa TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Murry Fly El

Murry Fly Elementary sits in an oil-boom region where energy wealth is reshaping both the landscape and the school buildings themselves. The school is a regular public elementary serving a substantial population across prekindergarten through fifth grade in Odessa, a West Texas city at the heart of the Permian Basin. The neighborhood around Murry Fly is part of that growth: new residential development is clustering in the northern and eastern parts of the city, with master-planned communities like Parks Bell Ranch bringing schools alongside shopping and housing. The school's immediate housing market reflects that context. Home values in the area run below the state benchmark, and rents are moderate relative to income, making this part of Odessa accessible to working families even as the boom inflates prices elsewhere.

The school's enrollment is heavily concentrated among students from Spanish-speaking households. Nearly all students identify as Hispanic, and a large majority qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which tracks with the economic composition of the neighborhoods Murry Fly serves. Fewer than half the students tested in reading and math are meeting proficiency standards, and in writing and science the results are considerably softer. Testing in Grade 3 shows particularly low outcomes in both reading and math, both being conducted in Spanish. Grade 4 performs better, with just under half the students meeting math proficiency. By Grade 5, math performance dips again to below half, while reading on Spanish-language assessment drops sharply. Science proficiency in Grade 5 shows zero students meeting the standard.

The pattern across the data suggests that Spanish-language instruction may be a factor worth investigating. A substantial share of third graders were tested in Spanish, as were some fifth graders, and those cohorts show the lowest results. This is common in schools serving emergent bilingual populations, where students assessed in Spanish while still developing English may not yet meet grade-level benchmarks in either language. A parent considering Murry Fly may want to discuss with the school how it approaches reading instruction for speakers of Spanish, how students transition to English-language testing, and what progress students make across grades.

Against the comparison set of districts in Ector County, Murry Fly's proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. The school's results are well below the median of its county peers, signaling that students here are facing genuine academic gaps. No graduation rate applies to an elementary school, and chronic absenteeism data was not available.

Ector County ISD itself is in the midst of substantial change. Voters approved a major bond in November 2023 that is funding a new career and technical education center, new school buildings, and a complete redrawing of attendance boundaries as a new middle school opens in 2026. Property tax rates dropped slightly for the 2025-26 school year. The district took direct control of Ector Middle School in July 2024 after years under a charter operator, returning it to the district fold. For families with young students like those at Murry Fly, the immediate question is whether the current academic results match their child's needs and what support the school offers to help students catch up to grade level, especially in the transition from Spanish-language to English-language instruction.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 22% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 42% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 37% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 18% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 43% · ▲ 6 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 45% · ▼ 39 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 19% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

This schoolECTOR COUNTY 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 4Lower-income32%Higher-income80%48 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income70%34 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income63%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income15%Higher-income35%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income16%Higher-income67%51 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income17%Higher-income50%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income58%4 pp gap