Cedar Bayou J H, Baytown TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Cedar Bayou J H

Cedar Bayou Junior High serves sixth through eighth grade in Baytown, Texas, as part of Goose Creek CISD. The school sits in a city shaped by petrochemical industry, where ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical, and Covestro anchor the local economy alongside employers like Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital and Lee College. Baytown itself is a growing Gulf Coast community about 25 miles east of downtown Houston, currently in an active development phase that includes a large mixed-use redevelopment of the former San Jacinto Mall site and a planned events center. For families relocating to the area, housing near the school comes in well below both the Texas and national median home value benchmarks, and rents have edged slightly lower over the past year, making the corridor comparatively accessible. The broader Harris County market has a growing inventory of active listings and homes sitting on the market somewhat longer than a year ago, giving buyers more time to evaluate options.

The student body is a large one for a middle school, spread roughly evenly across the three grade levels. A strong majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school's demographic makeup is predominantly Hispanic, with Black and white students each representing meaningful shares. English learner counts and special education rates were not available in the data provided.

On the STAAR assessments, the picture is mixed and warrants honest attention. Reading across the reported subjects and grades, math proficiency climbs grade by grade, starting in the lower range in sixth grade, improving modestly in seventh, and reaching a more solid level by eighth. ELA follows a similar upward arc. Eighth-grade science lands in the upper-low-to-mid range. Social studies in eighth grade is the area of most concern, with a notably small share of students reaching the meets-grade-level standard, and parents may want to ask the school directly about how it is addressing that subject. The master-level threshold, which in Texas signals the deepest command of material, is reached by only a small fraction of students across all subjects. Placed against districts in Harris County, Cedar Bayou JH's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of that comparison set of roughly 60 districts. No trend data across multiple years was available, so it is not possible to characterize whether performance is improving, holding, or declining.

A graduation rate does not apply here because Cedar Bayou serves only middle school grades. No program offerings, AP or otherwise, were reported in the data, which is expected for a sixth-through-eighth-grade campus. Civil rights data and chronic absenteeism rates were also not provided.

The school's parent district, Goose Creek CISD, was searched for recent strategic changes or notable shifts in direction, but the research did not turn up confirmed developments in time, so that piece is left out rather than filled with speculation.

For a family moving to Baytown, Cedar Bayou JH is the neighborhood middle school pathway in a working-class, industrially rooted community with an active civic fabric, affordable housing relative to regional benchmarks, and a city genuinely in motion. The academic performance results are real constraints worth factoring in, particularly in math and social studies at the lower grade levels, and a conversation with the school about supports and instructional approach would give a clearer picture of what students experience day to day.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 23% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 29% · ▼ 2 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 40% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 39% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Science

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 815%

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

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolGOOSE CREEK CISD, 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 6Lower-income28%Higher-income52%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income31%Higher-income60%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income41%Higher-income51%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income36%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income48%26 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income64%24 pp gap