Van Middle, Van TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Van Middle

Van Middle is a small public elementary and lower-middle-grade school in Van, a rural East Texas city about a hour northwest of Tyler along Interstate 20. The school serves grades two through six and enrolls about a small-to-mid-sized population of students, of whom nearly two-thirds qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful share of Hispanic students and smaller numbers of Black and multiracial students.

The school's test performance on the Texas state assessment (STAAR) shows a pattern of modest proficiency across both math and reading, with uneven results by grade level. In math, proficiency climbs from third grade through fifth grade, then drops notably in sixth grade. Reading proficiency is lowest in third grade, rises through fourth grade, peaks in sixth grade, and dips slightly in between. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects sits below the midpoint among the eight districts in Van Zandt County. The lower third-grade reading result and the decline in sixth-grade math are areas a parent may want to discuss with the school to understand the underlying factors. State testing data for science was available only for fifth grade and did not yield reportable proficiency figures. No enrollment-level trend data showing whether proficiency is moving up or down year-to-year was available.

Van Middle is not a choice school or magnet; it is the regular public elementary/middle campus for Van Independent School District. The district sits in the I-20 growth corridor and has adopted a higher property-tax maintenance-and-operations rate, a cost shift families moving in would factor in. For high school graduates, the district offers a significant college-affordability advantage through the TJC Promise, which covers tuition and fees for up to two years at Tyler Junior College for students who meet GPA, attendance, and community-service criteria starting as freshmen. That benefit is concrete and material for families planning to stay in the district through high school.

The broader Van community is small, family-oriented, and economically grounded in construction, education, and retail. Housing values in the zip code are well below Texas and national medians, making the area accessible to working families. The town has a modest downtown Main Street, city parks and recreation services, and ties to county library systems, though it is car-dependent and has no local public transit. Growth in Van and Van Zandt County has been steady, and the city actively recruits new residents and business investment along the I-20 corridor.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 40%

even with state median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 1 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

even with state median

This schoolVAN 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-income27%Higher-income37%10 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income58%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income68%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income41%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income22%Higher-income55%33 pp gap