The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Science. The lowest is 17% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Patton Springs School
Patton Springs School sits in Afton, a tiny unincorporated community on the Llano Estacado in northern Dickens County, roughly equidistant from a handful of small West Texas towns. Afton has no local government, no real commercial center, and a population that has dwindled to a handful of residents over several decades of out-migration. The school campus on Farm Road 193 is, practically speaking, the civic core of the place, alongside a Baptist church and a post office. The surrounding economy runs on cattle, cotton, and hunting leases. No growth or development pressure was found in the area.
The most consequential thing a family needs to know right now is structural: publicly reported sources indicate that as of fall 2025, Patton Springs ISD voted to stop serving grades 7 through 12 and operate only as a PK through sixth-grade school. Families with children entering seventh grade or above must arrange a tuition transfer to Spur ISD or Guthrie ISD. This is not a temporary situation. Any parent evaluating this school for a child who will eventually reach middle or high school age needs to plan around that transfer from the start, including transportation across rural West Texas roads.
The enrollment data in the profile reflects the school as it operated before that change took effect, serving prekindergarten through twelfth grade, and shows a very small overall student body. Grades could have just a handful of children at any given level. That context matters for understanding the state test results.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, grade-level groups at Patton Springs are so small that Texas withholds proficiency results for many of them to protect student privacy. Where results are reported, the picture is mixed. Fifth graders tested at full proficiency in both math and science, a strong outcome. Eighth-grade math and reading each came in at roughly half of students meeting the standard, and eighth-grade science was below that, with social studies lower still. Third-grade math and reading showed no students reaching proficiency. Because each tested group may include only a small number of children, a single student's result can shift a grade's reported rate dramatically in either direction, so these figures are genuinely difficult to interpret as a trend. A parent should look into this further with the school rather than drawing firm conclusions from any one grade's number.
Across all tested subjects and performance levels combined, the school sits at the lower end of the two-district comparison set within Dickens County. The "approaches grade level" threshold, Texas's baseline standard, was reached by a majority of students overall, with social studies the strongest subject at that threshold. Fewer students reached the higher "meets" standard across subjects, and the share reaching the top "masters" level was modest. Multi-year trend data was not available; only a single year of results is in the record, so direction of change cannot be assessed.
A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic character of the surrounding rural community. The student body is predominantly white and Hispanic. Data on English learner enrollment and students served under individualized education programs was not available in the data provided.
Program information was not available. Given the school's very small size and its imminent contraction to elementary grades only, families should ask directly what elective, enrichment, or support services exist and how those will change under the new PK-6 configuration. No graduation rate is now applicable, since the district has exited secondary education. AP, dual credit, and career pathway offerings were not reported, and those questions are moot for the school going forward.
For a family already in Afton or deeply rooted in the surrounding ranch country, Patton Springs offers a genuinely small elementary school environment where teachers likely know every child by name. For a family weighing a move, the practical reality is a PK-6 school in an isolated, shrinking rural community, with secondary schooling requiring a transfer to another district entirely.
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