Union Grove Middle, Harker Heights TX

Original Research by School Decision on Union Grove Middle

Union Grove Middle is a public middle school in Harker Heights serving grades six through eight within Killeen Independent School District. The school enrolls a diverse population, with roughly equal shares of white, Hispanic, and Black students, alongside smaller populations of Asian and multiracial learners. About four in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of economic need. The enrollment is modest for a suburban middle school and sits in a community that is rapidly growing, with new residential development ongoing and families drawn partly by proximity to Fort Cavazos and affordability relative to other Central Texas towns.

On state assessments administered in 2024-2025, Union Grove's results reflect uneven performance across subjects and grades. In English language arts, the school's strength shows most clearly in eighth grade, where about three in five students met or exceeded proficiency. Sixth and seventh graders scored lower, at just under half and two in five students meeting the standard respectively. Mathematics presents the clearest area of concern. Across all three grades, proficiency lags significantly. In sixth grade about one in three students met or exceeded the standard; this falls to about three in ten in seventh grade and drops steeply to just one in five in eighth grade. Science and social studies results, both tested only in eighth grade, fell in the range of three to four in ten students meeting or exceeding proficiency. Across all subjects, relatively few students reached the highest mastery level, with the majority of proficiency concentrated in the "meets" category rather than "masters."

One parent consideration is that only one year of state assessment data is available, so it is not possible to determine whether these results reflect an improving, declining, or stable trajectory. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand whether recent results represent typical performance and what academic supports exist for students who have not yet reached proficiency.

Harker Heights itself is a car-dependent suburban bedroom community just east of Killeen. It functions primarily as a residential place where working residents commute to Fort Cavazos, Killeen, or elsewhere in the region. The town has no traditional downtown; commercial and civic life cluster along highway corridors. Housing values are modest relative to state and national benchmarks. The community is family-oriented and quiet compared to larger Central Texas cities, with a notably large share of military families. Growth is rapid and ongoing, with residential subdivisions adding hundreds of units and residents expressing concerns about traffic and infrastructure capacity on limited road networks.

Killeen ISD itself is navigating significant changes. The district approved a "District Optimization" plan in October 2025 that closes three schools, including two middle schools, at the end of the current school year. Union Grove is not among those closed. However, the district is planning further consolidations and rezoning through 2027-2028, including possible consolidation of other elementary schools and expansion of bilingual programming. Families considering the district should understand that attendance boundaries and school configurations are shifting. The district also expects declining enrollment and is planning curriculum and programming changes, including a future study to expand career and technical education, STEM, and dual enrollment access. On the positive side for families, school property taxes in Killeen ISD have fallen sharply in recent years through state-mandated rate compression, reducing the school portion of local property bills substantially.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 25% · ▲ 9 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 22% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 25% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 649%

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

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 38% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 45% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 34% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 21% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

This schoolKILLEEN 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 6Lower-income39%Higher-income61%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income46%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income76%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income40%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income37%12 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income27%11 pp gap