Rule School, Rule TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Rule School

Rule School is a small, rural pre-K through 12 school in a declining agricultural town in western Haskell County. It serves the entire district and sits within the town itself rather than on a separate campus. The enrollment is small, hovering around the low hundreds across all grades, with a majority of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The student body is split nearly evenly between White and Hispanic enrollment, with very small numbers of other races represented.

Academic performance is uneven. In the elementary grades, proficiency in math and English language arts ranges from low (around one-quarter to one-third proficient) in grades three and four, dips to lows in grade six mathematics, then climbs sharply in grades seven and eight, where roughly six in ten to eight in ten students reach proficiency. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with stronger performance as students advance. Science testing at grade five shows weak results, but grade eight science improves notably. Social studies at grade eight shows low proficiency. The school reports that nearly all students approach grade-level standards across subjects, indicating that instruction is reaching students but struggles with moving students to full proficiency, especially in math. A parent may want to look into the school's approach to building skills between elementary and middle grades, since the jump in performance in seventh and eighth grade is sharp and suggests either different teaching methods in the upper grades or a change in student composition.

The school operates as a consolidated K-12 campus in a town of several hundred residents on a long, slow population decline. Rule itself is a residential and agricultural community where most residents own their homes, many are retired, and housing is inexpensive. The economy is centered on farming and ranching (cotton, wheat, peanuts, ranching, and oil production), and the school district is one of the area's significant employers. The county seat and larger services sit a few miles away in Haskell. No major new housing development is planned or underway; the town has lost population steadily over decades as rural Texans move toward larger regional hubs.

The housing market reflects the rural, declining-population context. Home values in the area are well below state and national medians and have declined year-over-year, making the cost of living very low. Mortgage payments and down payments are modest by any standard. This makes Rule an affordable place for families or retirees on limited incomes, though it also signals that property values and long-term wealth building through real estate may be limited.

Rule School's test performance, while weak in the early grades and uneven across subjects, sits below the midpoint of proficiency when compared to other districts in Haskell County. The school lacks recent high school graduation rate data in this report, so a parent seeking to understand post-secondary outcomes should check with the district directly. The school's single-campus, consolidated structure means there is no separation between elementary, middle, and high school experience; students move through the same building from pre-K through graduation, which can create continuity but also limits the distinct identity and resources typical of larger secondary programs.

For families choosing to stay in or move to Rule, this school offers an affordable, tight-knit rural environment and direct access to a staff that knows students from early childhood through high school. Academic support and intervention would be worth discussing directly with the school, especially in mathematics and in the transition from elementary to middle grades, where the data shows the most strain.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=50%Cohort of 7 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,779 schools plotted. 59 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 615%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 29 pts above state median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 80%

▲ 38 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 46%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 767%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 80%

▲ 25 pts above state median

Science

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolRULE 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-income33%Higher-income60%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income40%23 pp gap