The top reported proficiency rate is 29% in Math. The lowest is 23% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on East Side El
East Side Elementary serves grades pre-kindergarten through fourth grade in Jacksonville, a small East Texas city that functions as the regional commercial and healthcare hub of Cherokee County. The school enrolls students across the early grades, with a student body that is economically and racially diverse.
The school's current academic performance shows particular softness in mathematics, where just under a third of third and fourth graders meet or exceed proficiency on state assessment. Reading and language arts performance is stronger at the fourth-grade level, where nearly half the students meet the proficiency threshold, though third-grade reading results are very limited in sample size and show no students meeting that measure. A parent may want to look into those third-grade reading results more directly with the school to understand the context. Overall, about two-thirds of students score at the "approaches" level across all subjects, meaning they are working toward the expected standard. The proportion advancing to "master" level is small.
The school's enrollment is stable at around six hundred students, split fairly evenly across its grade band. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a lower-income community. The student body includes a roughly even split between Hispanic and white students, with a meaningful population of Black students. The school's racial composition and economic characteristics reflect Jacksonville itself, a working-class city anchored by healthcare, retail, and light manufacturing.
Relative to other districts in Cherokee County, East Side Elementary's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among county schools. This is a meaningful signal that the school's academic results are trailing its neighbors in the same county.
The school sits on a campus separate from Jacksonville's compact historic downtown, which centers on retail shops, a library, and City Hall. Jacksonville is a growing but small community with modest recent population gains, anchored by employers like UT Health Jacksonville and hospitals, along with established retail. Housing costs are modest and well below state benchmarks. The area offers parks, outdoor recreation on Lake Jacksonville, and local restaurants, though entertainment and dining options are limited compared to larger towns.
Parents considering East Side should weigh the school's early-grade focus and its place within Jacksonville ISD against the current academic performance data, particularly in mathematics. The school serves its community with a diverse peer group, though academic outcomes suggest engagement with the school around instructional support would be valuable for families whose children need solid foundation skills in reading and math before entering the upper grades.
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