Excelsior El, Center TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Excelsior El

Excelsior Elementary serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in Center, a small community in Shelby County, Texas. The school has a small enrollment with just under eighty students spread across ten grade levels, making it a tight-knit setting where students often spend their entire elementary and middle years in the same building.

The student body is predominantly White, with smaller populations of Hispanic and Black students. About two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a community with modest household incomes. Special education enrollment data was not available, as was information on English learner populations.

Academically, the school shows a mixed profile across state testing results. In English language arts, performance varies considerably by grade. Third and fourth graders are below where the school needs them, but fifth graders and sixth graders reach the midpoint on state assessments, and remarkably, eighth graders performed substantially above that threshold. In mathematics, the picture is more concerning. Third grade shows only modest proficiency, fourth grade shows essentially no students meeting proficiency, fifth grade rebounds to about half the cohort, and proficiency drops steeply again in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Science results are sparse: fifth graders showed no proficiency, though eighth graders achieved partial success. Eighth grade social studies had no students meeting the proficiency bar.

Across all tested subjects, about a quarter of students are meeting proficiency, well below the midpoint for districts in Shelby County. The school's proficiency index places it below county peers. No prior-year data was available to show whether these results represent improvement, decline, or a stable pattern.

The school sits in a low-cost housing market where home values are substantially below state and national medians, and mortgage affordability is relatively strong. The local economy carries modest unemployment with real median household incomes near the national average.

A parent considering this school should understand that it has been the only school in the district serving the full PK-8 range. This changed fundamentally when Excelsior ISD opened its first high school in August 2025, beginning with a small cohort. For families staying in the district through high school, this removes the prior necessity of transferring out after eighth grade, a significant shift for district trajectory and retention. The district also adopted a new health curriculum called Esteem for grades 5-8 beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.

Given the academic results, particularly in mathematics and the gaps evident across several grades, a parent may want to look into further detail with the school about what instructional supports are available and what specific strategies the school is using to address proficiency gaps.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 41 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 34 pts below state median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 25 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 49%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 40 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 83%

▲ 28 pts above state median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 24 pts below state median

This schoolEXCELSIOR 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-income20%Higher-income33%13 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income0%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income80%60 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income20%Higher-income22%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income0%Higher-income0%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income40%20 pp gap