Alfonso Borrego Sr El, San Elizario TX

Original Research by School Decision on Alfonso Borrego Sr El

Alfonso Borrego Sr. Elementary sits on Chicken Ranch Road in San Elizario, a small semi-rural border community in the lower El Paso Valley, part of San Elizario ISD. The school serves grades three through six, placing it at the upper end of elementary and the beginning of middle-school territory, a slightly unusual span that means students spend their early intermediate years here before moving on within the same district.

San Elizario itself is a community shaped by its agricultural roots and its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border. Irrigated farmland and large lots still define much of its character, though a compact historic core along Main Street has reinvented itself as an arts district with galleries, studios, and a recurring calendar of public events. The school district is one of the larger institutional presences in the area, and the Pete Herrera Library on Socorro Road has grown into a community anchor offering health, mental health, and education services. For families new to the area, the town is car-dependent outside its small walkable core, and the school campuses are spread along separate roads rather than near that historic center.

On STAAR assessments, the picture at Borrego is uneven and warrants careful attention. Reading and language arts results land in roughly the low-to-mid third range across grades, with scores that are broadly consistent from third through sixth grade. Math results tell a more divided story: third and fourth grade math proficiency is quite low, while fifth and sixth grade math shows notably stronger performance, with sixth grade approaching half of students at or above grade level. Fifth grade science proficiency is low. Social studies, tested at the upper grades, shows about half of students approaching grade level but very few reaching the higher mastery threshold. Placing the school against other districts in El Paso County, its overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile of that group. These are the reported STAAR figures, and a parent who wants to understand what's driving the grade-level differences in math, or how the school is supporting students in science and social studies, would be well served by asking the school directly.

The student body is nearly entirely Hispanic, and an overwhelming share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding community. The school administers portions of its STAAR testing in Spanish, particularly at the lower grades, which points to a meaningful English learner or bilingual population, though specific English learner counts were not available in the data provided.

Two career and technical education offerings are listed for the school: Culinary Arts and Digital Media. These are unusual for a school that tops out at sixth grade, and families should confirm with the school how those programs are structured and who they serve.

At the district level, a few things are worth knowing. San Elizario ISD partnered with El Paso Community College to open an early college high school, publicly reported to have launched in 2021, where students can pursue a tuition-free associate's degree alongside their high school diploma. That pathway is downstream from Borrego, but it is the academic destination students here are moving toward. The district also joined Texas's Teacher Incentive Allotment program, creating a structure for top-rated teachers to earn significantly higher pay, an effort aimed at retention and classroom quality over time. On the facilities side, a bond proposal for middle school upgrades was rejected by voters in 2022, meaning aging building concerns remain unresolved; families may want to ask about current facility conditions, particularly given that Borrego's grade span overlaps with middle school years.

Home values in the San Elizario area are well below the Texas state median and substantially below the national median, making it one of the more affordable housing markets in El Paso County. Rents are also low relative to income by national comparison, though rental index data specific to this zip code was not available.

Chronic absenteeism data and graduation rate data were not available for this school. The graduation rate metric does not apply here given the grade band served.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 311%

School 11% · District 26% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 10% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 18% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 46% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 37% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 43% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

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

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 4% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

This schoolSAN ELIZARIO 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 3Lower-income11%Higher-income56%45 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income38%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income53%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income15%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income53%5 pp gap