The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in English language arts. The lowest is 21% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Waskom Middle
Waskom Middle School serves sixth through eighth grade in Waskom, Texas, a small East Texas town on the Louisiana state line in Harrison County. The school sits along School Avenue in a cluster with the district's elementary and high school campuses, physically integrated into a residential neighborhood rather than attached to any commercial hub. The town itself is car-dependent, blue-collar, and oriented around Interstate 20 and U.S. 80, with many residents commuting to Shreveport while keeping Texas residency. Housing stock skews older, with a substantial share of mobile homes, and the community is multigenerational and homeownership-heavy. Growth here has been essentially flat for years, with no significant new development on the horizon.
Enrollment at Waskom Middle is small for a grades six through eight campus, and the student body is majority white with meaningful Hispanic and Black populations and a smaller share identifying as two or more races. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, though beginning in the 2024-25 school year the district moved all campuses to the Community Eligibility Provision, meaning every student receives free breakfast and lunch regardless of family income, with no application required. Data on English learner and special education populations were not available in the data provided.
On the Texas STAAR, the picture differs noticeably by subject and grade. Reading and language arts results are the strongest area: eighth graders reach proficiency at a solid rate, and sixth graders are not far behind, with seventh grade showing a modest dip. Math is a clearer soft spot. Sixth-grade math proficiency is quite low, and while seventh and eighth grade show improvement, the rates remain well below where many families would hope to see them. Eighth-grade science falls roughly in the middle range, and eighth-grade social studies proficiency is low, with only a small fraction of students reaching the standard. At the advanced "masters" level across all subjects, only a small share of students reach that bar, and this applies to math especially. Because only a single year of data is available in the comparison set, trend direction cannot be assessed. A parent wanting to understand whether performance is improving, holding steady, or declining would want to ask the school directly for historical campus data.
Placed against districts in Harrison County, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint of the six-district county comparison set, which is a meaningful position for a small rural campus, though the county set includes a wide range of district sizes and contexts. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate comparisons do not apply here, as the school does not serve high school grades.
The district is in the early stages of a significant facilities transformation. Voters approved a major bond in May 2026, publicly reported as funding a new pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade building, Career and Technical Education upgrades at the high school, new district buses, and broader campus renovations. District officials acknowledged that a number of existing facilities do not meet current state requirements. The bond is expected to raise the tax rate, but officials publicly stated that because of recent homestead exemption increases, the average homeowner in the district would see no change in their school tax bill. For families weighing a move into Waskom ISD, the construction activity will be concentrated on the elementary campus and high school, not the middle school, but the multi-year building program will shape the district's overall environment.
Housing near the school is considerably more affordable than Texas and national benchmarks. Home values in the area have dipped modestly year over year, sitting well below state and national medians. Rental rate data was not available for this zip code. The price-to-income ratio here is well below the national figure, making the area accessible for working families by ownership standards.
Program details for the middle school were not available in the data, so the breadth of electives, extracurriculars, or support services at the campus level is not something that can be characterized here. Parents interested in those specifics would need to ask the school directly.
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