The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in English language arts. The lowest is 13% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on De Zavala El
De Zavala Elementary sits on San Antonio's west side, within San Antonio ISD, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is part of a dense urban neighborhood close to the city's historic core, where the housing market looks very different from San Antonio's booming suburban edges. Home values near the school are well below both the Texas state median and the national median, and rents, while rising at a pace outpacing local inflation based on publicly reported figures, remain relatively modest in absolute terms. For families weighing a neighborhood purchase, the price-to-income ratio here is among the more accessible in the broader metro.
The student body is almost entirely Hispanic and nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making De Zavala one of the more economically concentrated campuses in the district. Pre-kindergarten draws a substantial slice of the enrollment, which means the school has a meaningful early-childhood presence alongside its elementary grades. Data on English learner identification rates and special education participation were not available in what was provided.
On state STAAR assessments, proficiency across tested subjects and grades places the school below the midpoint among districts in Bexar County. Reading and language arts results are somewhat stronger than math, with third and fifth graders showing more students reaching proficiency than fourth graders in ELA, while math results are lower across all three tested grades. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows the smallest share of students reaching proficiency. The overall picture is that most students are not yet meeting grade-level expectations on state measures, and a parent would reasonably want to ask the school directly about how instruction is being adapted to close those gaps.
That question has a district-level context worth understanding. San Antonio ISD has been in the middle of a significant curriculum overhaul, publicly reported as a response to persistently low STAAR scores. The district moved away from campus-by-campus variation and toward a standardized, district-wide curriculum in math and reading, along with a phonics-centered approach to literacy instruction aligned to what educators call the science of teaching reading. This shift is still unfolding, and families enrolling now are entering a period of transition rather than a settled instructional model. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from this data to say whether scores are improving.
The district is also in the aftermath of a major consolidation. In late 2023, publicly reported accounts describe the board voting to close fifteen schools and merge or redesign others, driven by long-term declining enrollment. The decision affected a substantial number of students across SAISD, and publicly reported coverage noted that a meaningful share of those students did not return to the district the following year. De Zavala itself remains open, but the broader network of neighborhood schools around it has been reshaped, and incoming families should confirm current attendance boundaries and feeder patterns directly with the district.
On the facilities side, a large bond measure passed in 2020, publicly reported as the largest in the district's and city's history, is funding renovation projects at dozens of campuses, with work continuing through 2025 across the district.
San Antonio itself is one of the fastest-growing large cities in the country, with a diverse economy anchored by healthcare, military installations under Joint Base San Antonio, finance, and a growing technology and cybersecurity cluster. The west side neighborhood around De Zavala is urban and walkable relative to the city's suburban edges, with access to VIA Metropolitan Transit bus service and proximity to the River Walk corridor. Pre-K availability, a bilingual peer environment, and a location in an affordable housing pocket of a large and economically active city are the practical draws of this school for families in the area. The academic improvement path is genuinely in progress, and how that progression unfolds at the campus level is a fair and open question for any family considering enrollment.
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