The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Gentry El
Gentry Elementary sits on Twin Oaks Drive in Mesquite, a city in Dallas County, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Mesquite ISD. The school is a mid-to-large-sized elementary campus for its grade band, with a student body that is roughly evenly split between Black and Hispanic students, alongside smaller shares of white and multiracial children. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic makeup of the surrounding community.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, the most complete picture available is for fifth-grade English and reading, and for third grade in ELA. At the third-grade level, fewer than half of students reached the "meets grade level" bar in reading and writing, and at fifth grade the rate was similar. In science, fifth-grade proficiency was notably lower, with only about one in five students reaching that threshold. Across all tested subjects combined, Gentry's overall proficiency index sits just above the midpoint relative to districts in Dallas County, which is a reasonable but not standout position in a large, competitive county. Math proficiency results at the grade level were largely suppressed in the state data, likely because the tested groups were too small to report, so a full subject-by-subject picture is not available there.
The STAAR also breaks performance into three tiers: "approaches grade level," "meets grade level," and "masters grade level." Schoolwide, about two-thirds of students reach the approaches bar across subjects, meaning they have a baseline grip on the material. The share meeting grade level falls to roughly two in five, and the share reaching masters level is small. In reading and writing specifically, the meets-grade-level rate is near that same range, while social studies proficiency at the meets level is considerably lower, and masters-level performance there is quite limited. Parents who want to understand how students are progressing toward readiness for middle school may want to ask the school directly about its reading intervention programs and how it supports students who are approaching but not yet meeting grade level.
One detail worth flagging: math proficiency at each grade level was largely missing from the state reporting, not because math is untested but because group sizes in those grade-level rows were too small to generate a reportable rate. The school's overall math trajectory in the aggregate trend data suggests approaches-level rates are comparable to reading, though the picture is incomplete.
The housing market near the school, in the zip codes that feed this area of Mesquite, shows home values that are modestly above the Texas statewide benchmark but below the national one. Values have dipped slightly year over year, as have rents, which could be relevant for families weighing whether the neighborhood is affordable relative to other Dallas County options. At current rates, estimated monthly ownership costs would consume a manageable share of a median income, and rents, while elevated nationally, are running below ownership costs by a meaningful margin. This is a more affordable corner of the Dallas metro than many.
The district brief for Mesquite ISD did not surface confirmed recent parent-relevant changes before research was completed, so that context is left out rather than guessed at. Similarly, the locale brief for Mesquite itself did not return usable detail on walkability, civic anchors, major employers, or neighborhood character, so those dimensions of the community are gaps here. A family moving to this part of Mesquite would want to explore those questions through local sources.
The school offers no program designations in the data, such as magnet status or specialized pathways, and it is a standard public elementary campus. No disciplinary data, chronic absenteeism figures, or staffing ratios were available, so those dimensions of the school environment cannot be characterized here. Graduation rate does not apply to an elementary school. For a parent evaluating Gentry, the clearest signal is that academic proficiency is below where many families might hope, particularly in science, and asking the school what it is doing to close those gaps would be a productive first conversation.
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