Shamrock El, Shamrock TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Shamrock El

Shamrock Elementary serves a small student body in a rural Panhandle town that is itself shrinking. The school is housed within a consolidated campus that sits apart from downtown, alongside Shamrock ISD's middle and high school buildings. Enrollment sits at a small level, with about a third of the cohort in pre-K, and about a quarter of students in each of the tested elementary grades (third through fifth).

The student population is economically challenged: a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The racial makeup is predominantly white, with a significant Hispanic enrollment and smaller populations of other groups represented.

Academic results on the 2024 STAAR assessments are concerning across all tested subjects and grades. In math, proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grade hovers in the low-to-mid range; fifth grade shows the strongest performance, though still modest. English language arts proficiency is similarly weak in third and fourth grades, though fifth-grade students show notably better results, with a meaningful share meeting proficiency standards. Science proficiency in fifth grade is very low, with only a handful of students at proficiency; a parent may want to look into how science is being taught and resourced at the school.

The school sits within Wheeler County, a rural county with four public school districts. On a countywide proficiency comparison, Shamrock Elementary falls in the bottom quartile across tested subjects and grades, meaningfully below the median and well below the strongest performers in the county.

Shamrock itself is a small, historic Route 66 town built around cattle, agriculture, and oil and gas. Its downtown retains character and walkability, but the wider community has experienced steady population decline over decades. The housing stock is predominantly older single-family homes. The local economic base includes the hospital, school system, city government, and scattered small businesses in health care, services, and extraction industries. Most residents drive alone to work, and the town is car-dependent overall. No major new residential development is underway; the trajectory is one of slow contraction rather than growth.

For a family considering this school, the key question is whether its low test proficiency reflects remediable resource or instructional gaps, or signals deeper structural challenges in a shrinking system serving a high-poverty student body. The data presented here does not answer that. A conversation with school leadership about reading, math, and science instruction, teacher capacity, and any recent or planned changes would be essential before deciding.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 33% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 13% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 32% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 24% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 30% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 21% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 11% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

This schoolSHAMROCK 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-income24%Higher-income13%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income87%46 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income18%Higher-income13%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income67%43 pp gap