Porter El, Porter TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Porter El

Porter Elementary sits in suburban Montgomery County north of Houston, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in what is fast-becoming the booming Valley Ranch development corridor. The school enrolls a small to moderate population of families, a strong majority of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority Hispanic, with significant Black and white enrollment; a small number of students take the Spanish-language assessment option, suggesting some bilingual or Spanish-learning pathways may exist, though English learner and special education headcount data were not available.

The academic picture shows real strain across core subjects. On the latest state testing, proficiency in math runs low across the grade band. Third graders met proficiency at roughly one-third, fourth graders at a similar level, and fifth graders at about two-fifths; science in fifth grade sits well below one in five students meeting proficiency. English language arts performs better relatively, with fourth graders reaching about half proficiency and fifth graders around half as well, though third graders tested in Spanish show very low proficiency. Across all measured subjects when collapsed, students reaching "meets" or higher levels (not just "approaches") hover below half. The school sits above the midpoint among the seven districts in Montgomery County on overall proficiency, a meaningful positioning that suggests it is not the lowest-performing school in its county peer set, though it remains a campus where many students are not yet on grade-level in tested academics.

Porter Elementary is not the only school changing in the district. New Caney ISD voters approved a major bond in 2023 that will bring two new elementary schools and two new middle schools to the district, adding substantial capacity as the area grows. The district's property tax rate for schools has trended downward over recent years despite this investment, which affects the cost side of families' housing calculations. A new elementary school opened nearby for 2025-26 as an International Baccalaureate candidate school, giving families with interest in that curriculum model another option in the same district.

Porter itself is an unincorporated community built rapidly as suburban housing development, mostly car-dependent, with household incomes skewing above the Texas average. The largest driver of growth is Valley Ranch, a sprawling master-planned community at the I-69 and Grand Parkway interchange designed to hold thousands of homes and substantial commercial use. Home values have risen substantially since 2020, and new retail and mixed-use projects are underway, making this a place where families are choosing to move and invest in housing. The locale is flood-prone as a geographic constraint.

A parent weighing Porter Elementary would be looking at a school in a growing, income-stable suburban area with active new housing construction, serving a diverse population in majority economic need, with current state test results that sit above its district county peer average but show most students still approaching rather than meeting grade-level standards in foundational academics. The school's own trajectory and any school-level academic interventions would merit direct conversation with the administration.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 36% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 26% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 39% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 45% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 24% · ▲ 29 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 52% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 6% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

This schoolNEW CANEY 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 4Lower-income49%Higher-income65%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income38%5 pp gap