The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in English language arts. The lowest is 33% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Sam Fordyce El
Sam Fordyce Elementary sits on FM 886 in Sullivan City, a small Rio Grande Valley border city in Hidalgo County. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of La Joya ISD, a large district that stretches west from Mission along the river corridor. The student body is entirely Hispanic, and nearly every enrolled child qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this campus squarely within one of the most economically modest communities in Texas. Secondary schooling for these students eventually happens outside Sullivan City itself, since La Joya High School is located in La Joya, some miles to the east.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, the school's results are a mixed picture across grades and subjects. The share of students approaching grade level across all tested subjects sits in a range that lands in the top quartile relative to other districts in Hidalgo County, which is a meaningful position given how many districts that county contains. In fourth and fifth grade reading and language arts, proficiency rates are genuinely solid, with fifth grade ELA standing out as the strongest result in the data. Math performance is more variable: fourth grade math is notably stronger than third or fifth grade. Third grade reading, administered in Spanish for a portion of the class, shows considerably lower proficiency, and fifth grade science also lags. The share of students reaching the "masters" level, Texas's highest performance tier, is low across all subjects, which means while many students are getting over the basic threshold, far fewer are demonstrating deep command of the material. A parent who wants to understand whether the school has a plan to move more students to that higher tier may want to ask the campus directly.
Trend data is limited to a single year, so there is no multi-year trajectory to describe. Chronic absenteeism and detailed staffing figures were not available in the data.
The district context matters and deserves direct attention. In early 2024, the Texas Education Agency removed La Joya ISD's elected school board after a substantiated investigation into fraud and conflicts of interest by prior trustees, and installed a state-appointed board of managers along with a new superintendent. The TEA extended that state control through early 2028, publicly citing progress in governance and academic performance as conditions for an eventual return to local election. Separately, a TEA investigation documented that millions of dollars were spent under a contract tied to a criminal conspiracy involving bribes and kickbacks, which is the underlying reason for the takeover. This governance situation is something a family newly to the area would be weighing alongside the academic picture.
Also in early 2026, the district's appointed board voted to permanently close several elementary campuses and repurpose a middle school, driven by a sustained enrollment decline over the past decade. Sam Fordyce Elementary was not among the campuses named for closure, but the consolidation does shift zoning boundaries and reassigns students from closed schools to remaining campuses, which could affect class sizes and transportation patterns. Parents have publicly raised those concerns, and it is worth asking the district directly how Sam Fordyce's enrollment is expected to change.
Sullivan City itself is a car-dependent community oriented around US Highway 83 and the connection to larger Valley cities. Home values here are well below both the Texas and national medians, making this among the more affordable housing markets in the Rio Grande Valley. The community is largely residential in character, with a family-oriented identity, a recently built library, expanded park facilities including a splash pad, and Valley Metro bus service connecting residents to McAllen and points east. Most employment draws people out of town for work. The city's population has been essentially flat to slightly declining in recent years after earlier growth, though publicly reported sources note an influx of newcomers drawn by lower costs and available land.
For a family placing a child at Sam Fordyce, this is a neighborhood elementary school embedded in a tight-knit, predominantly Spanish-speaking community, with reading strengths that emerge clearly by the upper elementary grades, math results that vary noticeably by grade level, and a district governance situation that is in active transition and worth monitoring.
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