Tornillo Int, Tornillo TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Tornillo Int

Tornillo Intermediate is a small public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in a dispersed agricultural community in El Paso County, near the Mexican border. The school enrolls roughly three-hundred-seventy students, nearly all from families of Hispanic descent, with a substantial majority qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. It sits on a campus a few miles from State Highway 20, the main corridor through the rural, car-oriented community.

The school's academic performance reflects weak overall achievement in tested grades. In math, third-grade proficiency reached about half the number who test in fourth grade, and fifth grade showed a marked drop, with only a small fraction meeting the standard. English language arts results were similarly uneven across grades, ranging from low to moderate. The school offers testing in both English and Spanish, reflecting the bilingual composition of its student body, though testing numbers in Spanish-language assessments were small. Science was tested only in fifth grade, with too few responses to report a reliable result. Across all subjects, the school's proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile when compared to other schools in El Paso County.

The broader context matters for reading these results. Tornillo serves an economically stressed community where the vast majority of families qualify for free lunch, household incomes run below national norms, and a large share of residents were born outside the United States. In November 2025, the school district's voters rejected a local property tax increase that would have raised ongoing revenue, and district leaders publicly stated the failed election forces consideration of loans and possible staff layoffs, with ripple effects on program offerings and staff retention. A voter-approved state constitutional amendment did raise the homestead exemption on school taxes, so most owner-occupied homes in Tornillo now owe little or no school tax, which may help families already managing financial strain but does not address the district's revenue shortfall.

The school sits within a small, geographically isolated district navigating real budget pressure. Parent and resident interest should turn to the district's trajectory following the failed November vote and what program adjustments or staffing changes may follow. The school's low proficiency and high-poverty enrollment suggest students entering with substantial academic gaps and limited prior preparation; a parent may want to discuss with the school what reading and math interventions are in place and how individual student progress is monitored. Tornillo Intermediate offers a rural, under-resourced pathway; families should ask specifically about how the anticipated budget constraints will affect classroom staffing, tutoring availability, and extracurricular offerings, because those answers will shape the experience for children already walking into a school with low achievement.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 33% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 518%

School 18% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 71% · ▼ 50 pts below district

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

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 33% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 41% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 50 pts below county median

This schoolTORNILLO 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 5Lower-income8%Higher-income67%59 pp gap