The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in English language arts. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Creekside El
Creekside Elementary sits on Lions Avenue in Livingston, the county seat of Polk County in the Piney Woods of East Texas. It serves grades one through five as a regular public school within Livingston ISD, with an enrollment that puts it on the larger side for a standalone elementary campus. The student body is majority white, with Hispanic students making up roughly a third of enrollment and Black students a smaller share. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic conditions of the surrounding community. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in this profile.
On state assessments, Creekside's results are below the midpoint among districts in Polk County. Texas's STAAR exam measures students at three performance levels: approaches, meets, and masters grade level. Across all tested subjects, roughly two-thirds of Creekside students reach the approaches threshold, meaning they demonstrate at least basic grade-level exposure. The meets standard, which Texas considers the more meaningful marker of on-track performance, sits well below that. In reading and language arts, fewer than half of students in any tested grade reach meets, with third grade performing best and fifth grade lower. Math follows a similar pattern, with third grade the strongest point and fifth grade notably weaker. Science is the most concerning area: only a small fraction of fifth graders reached proficiency, which is low even accounting for the difficulty Texas's fifth-grade science assessment poses for many schools. Social studies, tested at the elementary level, also shows results clustered well below the meets standard. The share of students reaching the masters level, the highest tier, is quite thin across all subjects. Parents who want to dig deeper into whether the school's instructional supports are positioned to close these gaps may want to ask the school directly about its intervention programs and reading and math approaches.
Trend data is limited to a single year, so it is not possible to characterize whether scores are improving, stable, or declining. That context matters for a parent evaluating where the school is headed, and it is a gap worth raising when visiting or contacting the campus.
Livingston itself is a small East Texas city that functions as the commercial and government center for a largely rural county. The historic downtown near the Polk County Courthouse square has brick storefronts, local shops, and cafes, but the city is car-dependent for most daily needs. Major employers include the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's nearby facility, Livingston ISD itself, a hospital anchoring the local health sector, and manufacturing and construction industries. Lake Livingston State Park draws visitors to the area, and community life includes a farmers market, a quarterly trade days event, a municipal pool, and rodeo facilities.
The housing market is meaningfully more affordable than the Texas statewide median and well below national norms. Home values have been roughly flat to slightly down over the past year, and the rent-to-income ratio is modest by most standards. For families coming from higher-cost Texas metros, this gap is real. Livingston ISD has reduced its property tax rate in recent years, which matters to homeowners in the district. The district is also completing a major athletic complex using saved funds rather than a bond measure, and it runs a P-TECH academy at the high school level that allows students to pursue college credit and an industry certificate at no cost, a meaningful pathway for families thinking years ahead.
Creekside is the elementary entry point into that district pathway. The academic performance data as it stands reflects a school where a substantial share of students are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks by state standards, and that is a straightforward fact for families to weigh alongside the affordability of the community and the longer-term opportunities Livingston ISD offers at the secondary level.
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