Greenwood Hills El, Richardson TX

Original Research by School Decision on Greenwood Hills El

Greenwood Hills Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Richardson, a city built around a strong employment base in technology, telecommunications, and finance. The school sits within Richardson ISD, which is in the midst of a significant structural change: the district is moving from a junior-high model to a middle-school model, shifting sixth grade from elementary schools to middle schools. This transition began in the 2024-25 school year at two campuses and will expand to the remaining schools by fall 2028. For families with children currently in elementary, this means Greenwood Hills will eventually serve only kindergarten through fifth grade, with sixth graders moving to a new middle school configuration.

The school enrolls a modest enrollment for its grade band, with a student population that is predominantly Hispanic. The majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting an economically working family base. The school's state assessment results show a clear pattern: fourth-grade students perform substantially stronger than their peers in other grades. In fourth-grade English language arts and mathematics, proficiency rates reached the high-double-digit to high-70-percent range. Third graders, fifth graders, and sixth graders show lower proficiency across subjects, with rates ranging from the low single digits to the low-40-percent range. Fifth-grade English results stand out as particularly low. Science results, available only for fifth grade, showed proficiency in the low-30-percent range.

The disparity between grade levels is striking. A parent might want to look into what instructional or support factors distinguish the fourth-grade experience from the grades immediately before and after. The overall proficiency index across Greenwood Hills' tested grades and subjects places the school above the midpoint among Dallas County school districts, suggesting that despite the lower grades pulling down the average, the school is performing better than roughly half its county peers.

Richardson's housing market is moderately priced for the Dallas region. The city itself is in transition: the downtown CORE District is undergoing infrastructure improvements including public safety and civic projects, and the Innovation Quarter continues to develop around technology and startup infrastructure. University of Texas at Dallas operates a major research campus within the city boundaries. The Telecom Corridor remains the nation's largest concentration of telecommunications companies, and employers include State Farm, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Cisco, and others, creating a stable professional job market. This employment base and housing market make Richardson a draw for families moving into the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

For families considering Greenwood Hills, the chief academic point to investigate is the grade-level performance gap and what support or instruction might strengthen the younger and older elementary grades. The looming change to the middle-school model means that sixth grade will not remain at Greenwood Hills; families should clarify the timeline and which new middle school their child would attend when that transition occurs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 15% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 11% · ▲ 57 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 51% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 47% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 20% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 473%

School 73% · District 21% · ▲ 52 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 30% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 50 pts below state median · ▼ 46 pts below county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 56% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 1% · ▲ 26 pts above district

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

This schoolRICHARDSON 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-income64%Higher-income100%36 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income0%Higher-income11%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income63%22 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income25%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income50%22 pp gap