The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Scarborough El
Scarborough Elementary is a small, heavily Latino school serving pre-K through fifth grade in Houston ISD, located on Trenton Road in the 77093 zip code. The overwhelming majority of its enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and nearly all students are Hispanic. Pre-K and kindergarten cohorts are notably larger than upper grades, with enrollment tapering through fifth grade.
The school administers the STAAR assessment in Spanish at lower grades and English at upper grades, reflecting what appears to be a bilingual or dual-language program serving a Spanish-dominant population. Academic performance across tested grades is uneven. In third grade, proficiency on the math assessment sits substantially below where it needs to be, while English language arts shows more traction. Fourth grade is the school's stronger grade, with math approaching a midpoint proficiency level and reading clearning fifty percent proficiency. Fifth grade stumbles again, with particularly low performance on the Spanish-language reading assessment and zero proficiency on the science test administered that year. Overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades lands below the midpoint among Harris County districts.
The school's strengths lie in foundational skills. Across all subjects, roughly seven in ten students meet the "approaches grade level" standard, a decent base. In English language arts specifically, three-quarters of students approach proficiency, and nearly half meet grade level expectations overall. Math shows similar distribution. Where the school struggles is moving students from approaching proficiency to actually meeting or mastering grade-level work. Only about one in five students across all subjects reach mastery, and the fifth-grade data suggests significant gaps widen as students advance, particularly in science and in some language arts cohorts.
Parents considering this school should be aware of the broader Houston ISD context. The district has been under state control since June 2023, with an appointed board of managers and superintendent governing until at least June 2027. During this period, the district has rolled out the New Education System model at a growing number of schools, introducing scripted curriculum, longer school days, daily timed quizzes, and tighter classroom oversight. Whether Scarborough participates in NES is not stated in the available data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about instructional model, curriculum structure, and daily schedule. The district also lost a major bond referendum in 2024, delaying facility upgrades and renovations district-wide, and announced campus closures and consolidations in early 2026 that may affect enrollment or student assignments. These broader changes create uncertainty in the district environment even as individual schools operate.
For a family moving into the area with Spanish-speaking children, Scarborough's apparent bilingual structure addresses a real need. The reading performance in fourth grade suggests the program has some effectiveness at that transition point. The persistent weakness in math and the sharp drops in fifth-grade performance warrant direct conversation with the school about instructional supports, intervention availability, and how the school transitions students toward middle school demands. The school's demographics and economic composition are stable and distinctive; this is a school serving a specific community, and fit depends on whether a family's own needs and values align with serving a predominantly low-income Latino population in a period of district transition.
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