Ruben Hinojosa El, Mercedes TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Ruben Hinojosa El

Ruben Hinojosa Elementary serves the early-to-middle grades (pre-K through 5th grade) in Mercedes, a growing Rio Grande Valley city with strong family-oriented character and modest, affordable housing. The school sits within Mercedes Independent School District, a relatively small Texas district in Hidalgo County facing its own resource pressures after voters rejected a facility bond in 2024.

The school enrolls students who are predominantly Latino and economically disadvantaged. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the community's economic profile. The student body is linguistically diverse, though exact counts of English learner enrollment were not available in the data.

On state assessments, Ruben Hinojosa's results place it above the midpoint of proficiency among Hidalgo County districts overall. Students in grades 3 through 5 show uneven performance across tested subjects. In English language arts, 5th graders showed stronger attainment than lower grades, while math performance generally follows an upward trend from 3rd to 5th grade. Third-grade math proficiency sits at the lower end; by 5th grade, proficiency rises noticeably. Science testing occurs only in 5th grade, where proficiency is below the middle of the range. Across all tested domains, the share of students meeting and mastering standards—not merely approaching them—remains modest, and a parent may want to look into further with the school what literacy and numeracy supports are in place for students who enter below grade level.

The school functions as a traditional public elementary campus in a community actively experiencing residential growth and commercial development. Mercedes itself sits near the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets and benefits from proximity to regional employers, though the district's own fiscal health is strained. The city is centered around a traditional downtown and a strong community library and parks system, with Valley Metro regional transit connecting residents to neighboring towns. Housing is well below state and national median values, which shapes family mobility and financial capacity to support schooling at home.

The early-grade years at Ruben Hinojosa position students for transitions to upper elementary and middle school within the district. The school draws from a neighborhood-based, predominantly Spanish-speaking community and sits within a district that has explicit resource constraints following the 2024 bond defeat. A family considering this school should ask the district about class sizes, reading intervention programs, and how bilingual instruction (the school's language environment) is structured across the grades served.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 26% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 33% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 32% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 43% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 36% · ▲ 18 pts above district

even with state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 21% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

This schoolMERCEDES 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 3Lower-income38%Higher-income75%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income38%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income58%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income25%Higher-income83%58 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income56%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income75%32 pp gap