The top reported proficiency rate is 74% in English language arts. The lowest is 69% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Rhodes El
Rhodes El serves students in pre-kindergarten through first grade in Van, a small East Texas city along Interstate 20 northwest of Tyler. The school sits in Van Independent School District, which operates four campuses serving the city and surrounding area.
The school enrolls a small student body drawn from the Van area. The student population is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment and smaller numbers of Black students and multiracial students. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic circumstances of families in this rural and working-class community where construction, educational services, and retail trade are the leading employment sectors.
Rhodes El serves an early-grade band—pre-K through first grade—so state testing results available in the data apply only to third grade and reflect a prior school year (2011-12). In that year, third-grade students at the school scored above the midpoint in both math and English language arts when measured against other districts in Van Zandt County, placing Rhodes El in the top quartile countywide for overall proficiency. Because the school does not serve tested grades in the current data, no recent proficiency trends are available, and graduation rate and chronic absenteeism metrics do not apply to a primary elementary school. Parents seeking current academic performance information for this grade band would want to ask the school directly about recent assessments and literacy and numeracy progress.
The town itself is small, family-oriented, and rooted in an oil-field past, with churches and a Main Street tradition. The area is car-dependent, organized around highways and farm roads, with downtown civic life centered on Main Street. Van has experienced steady growth over decades and sits in a broader Texas housing corridor; home values in the zip code are below the Texas median and remain accessible to working families. The city reports ongoing construction of new homes and commercial properties and markets itself as offering low real estate prices and business incentives. Mortgage costs and rental costs are both modest relative to income in the area.
Van ISD offers a concrete college-affordability pathway through the TJC Promise, which covers tuition and fees for up to two years at Tyler Junior College for qualifying high school graduates who meet GPA, attendance, and community-service requirements. This program, available to Van graduates since 2020, represents a significant financial benefit for families planning through high school. The district also recently adopted a higher property tax rate for maintenance and operations, a recurring cost consideration for families relocating to the area.
Parents choosing Rhodes El are selecting a small early-grade school in a working, growing small-town setting where a majority of peers are from families receiving lunch assistance and where the school has shown solid proficiency relative to its county neighbors. The school is embedded in a district with concrete post-secondary affordability support and in a community with accessible housing and a family-oriented character, though the locale's car dependency and limited named civic infrastructure mean transportation and activity options revolve around the family home and school itself.
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