George E Kelly El, San Antonio TX

Original Research by School Decision on George E Kelly El

George E Kelly Elementary is a small school in San Antonio ISD serving early grades through fifth grade. The school's name in state records appears as Kelly Academy, which is the designation used in official assessments. The enrollment is small, with fewer than two hundred and fifty students across its pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade span, distributed fairly evenly across grade levels.

The student population is nearly entirely Hispanic, with a substantial majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. This profile places Kelly El in one of San Antonio's highest-poverty neighborhoods and reflects the demographic pattern of inner-city San Antonio ISD schools.

State assessment results show persistently low proficiency across tested grades and subjects. In mathematics, grade three achieved around four in ten students meeting the proficiency standard, while grades four through eight fell well below that, with grade seven showing no students at proficiency in math and grade four reaching only around one in ten. In English language arts, results are similarly modest. Grade three reached close to one in two, but grades four and five fell to around three in ten, and grades six through eight dropped further. Science proficiency was very low, with around one in ten reaching the standard in grade five and around one in six in grade eight. Grade eight's social studies assessment showed no students at proficiency, a result that stands out as particularly stark.

A parent may want to look into the school's recent experience and the district's broader context. San Antonio ISD has undergone significant change. In late 2023, the district voted to close fifteen schools and merge or redesign others as part of a "rightsizing" plan tied to long-term enrollment decline. More than a thousand students affected by those closures did not return to the district by the start of the school year. Additionally, following weak STAAR results, the district standardized its curriculum across campuses, replacing school-by-school variation with a common phonics-based approach to reading and aligned math instruction. These are district-wide shifts that fundamentally reshape the instructional environment.

Whether Kelly El was among the schools closed, merged, or redesigned in that rightsizing plan is not clear from available records, but the changes signal that the district is actively restructuring its approach to instruction and that families choosing any San Antonio ISD school are entering a period of transition. The 2020 bond measure, approved by voters and continuing through 2025, is funding renovations at multiple campuses and technology investments, so facility upgrades may be underway at this school as well.

The neighborhood context matters here. San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities, though growth has been concentrated in newer suburban subdivisions like Stone Oak and Alamo Ranch. Inner-city areas served by SAISD, including the neighborhoods around Kelly El, reflect older housing stock and higher poverty. Housing values in the area are substantially below both state and national benchmarks, making this part of San Antonio more affordable but also signaling economic stress. The major employers anchoring the regional economy—healthcare, military installations, finance, and a growing IT sector—are geographically dispersed, and transit access through VIA Metropolitan Transit is city-wide but may not be optimized for all neighborhoods.

For families choosing this school, the pressing question is whether the recent curriculum and structural changes have begun to move academic outcomes, and whether the school's instructional model and intensity of support align with their child's needs. The proficiency data presented here reflects the most recent testing year and does not show trend data, so whether results are improving, stable, or declining cannot be determined from this information. Speaking directly with school leadership about the implementation of the new curriculum, the school's specific support systems, and how the broader district changes have affected the campus would be important steps before enrolling.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 30% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 29% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 29% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 16%

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

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 9% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 21% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 35% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 44% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 33% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 34% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Science

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 5% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 26% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 10% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

This schoolSAN ANTONIO 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-income25%Higher-income60%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income18%Higher-income20%2 pp gap