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Alumni: what's one memory from BESSIE COLEMAN MIDDLE that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
488
Middle
DISTRICT 430 · STATE 643
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CEDAR HILL ISD·NCES 481323010559
Bessie Coleman Middle School
1208 PLEASANT RUN RD, CEDAR HILL, TX 75104 · (972) 293-4505 · Dallas County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL488 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 7% of Texas public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B-Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Texas public middle schools
Student : Teacher
14.5:1
34 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.6:1 · STATE 14.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
74%
362 students
DISTRICT 65% · STATE 65%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 141 | 29% |
| Grade 7 | 161 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 186 | 38% |
Student demographics
47%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 50% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
STAAR 2025-26 . % Meets Grade Level or AboveReading
49.0%
TX avg 54.5% . +26.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
24.0%
TX avg 45.3% . +13.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 24 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 55 and 45. Reading scores are up about 26 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 13 points.
Performance levels, 2025-26
| Subject | Masters Grade Level | Meets Grade Level | Approaches Grade Level | Did Not Meet Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 17.0% | 32.0% | 26.0% | 25.0% |
| Mathematics | 6.0% | 18.0% | 31.0% | 45.0% |
Share of tested students at each STAAR level. Each student counts in one level, so a row adds to about 100%.
STAAR results by year
| School year | Reading | Mathematics |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 49.0% | 24.0% |
| 2024-25 | 42.0% | 20.0% |
| 2023-24 | 38.0% | 17.0% |
| 2022-23 | 32.0% | 21.0% |
| 2021-22 | 23.0% | 8.0% |
| 2020-21 | 23.0% | 11.0% |
% Meets Grade Level or Above, all students and all tested grades.
Source: STAAR. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of TX schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
26.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
42.0%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 26% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 42% typical for Texas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Bessie Coleman Middle School
Bessie Coleman Middle School's state test result (26.3% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bessie Coleman Middle School this school | 488 | 74.2% | 26.3% |
| Brown Middle School FORNEY | 568 | 75.7% | 33.0% |
| Vincent Middle School BEAUMONT | 637 | 81.9% | 18.1% |
| W S Permenter Middle School CEDAR HILL | 456 | 77.9% | 34.1% |
| G W Carver 6th Grade STEM Learning Center LANCASTER | 473 | 84.1% | 38.0% |
| Curtistene S McCowan Middle School GLENN HEIGHTS | 643 | 78.5% | 28.8% |
Matched among Texas middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Bessie Coleman Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Texas | In Dallas County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 26.3% | #1,494 of 1,635 | #105 of 118 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 24.0% | #1,552 of 1,670 ▲ 11 | #114 of 123 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 49.0% | #1,075 of 1,670 ▲ 230 | #52 of 123 ▲ 18 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +10.0pp | #778 of 1,570 | #41 of 121 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 488 | #1,113 of 1,749 | #87 of 126 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.5:1 | #730 of 1,542 | #49 of 123 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 46.8% | #981 of 1,543 | #65 of 123 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 74.2% | #639 of 1,648 | #92 of 121 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -37.3% | #67 of 942 | #12 of 80 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
488
-245 (-33%) vs 2020
+3% since 2010-11, when it was 472
Student : Teacher
14.5:1
was 16.3:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 488 | 33.7 | 14.5:1 | 74% (362) |
| 2023-24 | 528 | 42.8 | 12.3:1 | 76% (401) |
| 2022-23 | 649 | 38.6 | 16.8:1 | 72% (470) |
| 2020-21 | 733 | 45 | 16.3:1 | 70% (511) |
| 2017-18 | 778 | 50.5 | 15.4:1 | 65% (502) |
| 2015-16 | 796 | 46 | 17.3:1 | 69% (549) |
| 2010-11 | 472 | 32 | 14.8:1 | 59% (278) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bessie Coleman Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 37% (778 to 488); teachers down 33% (50.5 to 33.7).
About Bessie Coleman Middle School
Bessie Coleman Middle School is a low-enrollment middle school in CEDAR HILL ISD, located in CEDAR HILL, Texas. The school serves 488 students in grades 6 through 8 in 2024-25. The average among middle schools in Texas is roughly 643 students; this school is 24% smaller than that.
Bessie Coleman Middle School is a school in CEDAR HILL ISD. The district has 12 schools and 6,253 students.
At Bessie Coleman Middle School, Black students make up 69% of the student body. The next largest groups are 22% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, and 2% White. The school's Black share is 47 points above the 22% share among Dallas County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 47% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Bessie Coleman Middle School counts 33.7 full-time-equivalent teachers, about 14.5 students for each one. That matches the 14.4:1 average for middle schools in Texas fairly closely. About 74% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits.
Bessie Coleman Middle School is graded D by allk12, scoring above 7% of Texas public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
When test results are adjusted for free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Bessie Coleman Middle School ranks in the bottom 10% of Texas schools. It scores 26.3%; the prediction is 42.0%.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Dallas County show that the median household income is $76,547, about 36% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 11%. Besides Bessie Coleman Middle School, Dallas County has 770 other public schools.
Waterford Oaks Elementary School is the closest public school, about 0.4 miles away in a straight line. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Bessie Coleman Middle School. Bessie Coleman Middle School places 6th of 8 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
Under the NCES locale system, Bessie Coleman Middle School is Suburb: Large.
Enrollment declined 33% from its 2020-21 level of 733. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 16.3:1 in 2020-21 to 14.5:1 in 2024-25.
Community posts for Bessie Coleman Middle School can cover enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Dallas County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,621,179
Census ACS
Median income
$76,547
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
36%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
771
459,645 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in CEDAR HILL ISD
- Cedar Hill High SchoolHigh · 1,974 students
- Waterford Oaks Elementary SchoolElementary · 521 students
- Cedar Hill Collegiate PrepElementary · 520 students
- Lakeridge Elementary SchoolElementary · 466 students
- W S Permenter Middle SchoolMiddle · 456 students
- Highlands Elementary SchoolElementary · 419 students
Other schools in CEDAR HILL
- Cedar Hill High SchoolHigh · 1,974 students
- Newman International at Cedar HillCombined · 897 students
- Waterford Oaks Elementary SchoolElementary · 521 students
- Cedar Hill Collegiate PrepElementary · 520 students
- Lakeridge Elementary SchoolElementary · 466 students
- W S Permenter Middle SchoolMiddle · 456 students
Nearby schools
- Waterford Oaks Elementary School0.4 mi · 521
- Highlands Elementary School1.4 mi · 419
- S Gus Alexander Jr Elementary School1.5 mi · 330
- Grace R Brandenburg Intermediate School1.5 mi · 345
- Cockrell Hill Elementary School1.9 mi · 397
- Village Tech Schools2.0 mi · 1,335
Frequently asked questions
About Bessie Coleman Middle SchoolHow many students attend Bessie Coleman Middle School?
Bessie Coleman Middle School enrolls approximately 488 students in grades 06-08.
Is Bessie Coleman Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Bessie Coleman Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many students per teacher at Bessie Coleman Middle School?
Approximately 14.5:1 students per teacher at Bessie Coleman Middle School.
How diverse is Bessie Coleman Middle School?
Bessie Coleman Middle School reports a student body of 2% White, 22% Hispanic, 69% Black, 1% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Is Bessie Coleman Middle School public or private?
Bessie Coleman Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by CEDAR HILL ISD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.