1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at DOWELL MIDDLE right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
995
Middle
DISTRICT 1,029 · STATE 643
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MCKINNEY ISD·NCES 482985016952
Dowell Middle School
301 S E RDG RD, MCKINNEY, TX 75070 · (469) 302-6700 · Collin County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL995 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.1:1
71 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.7:1 · STATE 14.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
22%
223 students
DISTRICT 37% · 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 | 329 | 33% |
| Grade 7 | 305 | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 361 | 36% |
Student demographics
63%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 72% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Dowell Middle School→McKinney Boyd High School
Feeds from
Based on published attendance-zone data from MCKINNEY ISD. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
STAAR 2025-26 . % Meets Grade Level or AboveReading
72.0%
TX avg 54.5% . +44.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
65.0%
TX avg 45.3% . +32.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 72 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 65 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 55 and 45. Reading scores are up about 44 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 32 points.
Performance levels, 2025-26
| Subject | Masters Grade Level | Meets Grade Level | Approaches Grade Level | Did Not Meet Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 44.0% | 28.0% | 14.0% | 14.0% |
| Mathematics | 36.0% | 29.0% | 19.0% | 16.0% |
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 | 72.0% | 65.0% |
| 2024-25 | 73.0% | 69.0% |
| 2023-24 | 74.0% | 68.0% |
| 2022-23 | 42.0% | 46.0% |
| 2021-22 | 42.0% | 31.0% |
| 2020-21 | 28.0% | 33.0% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
68.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
64.1%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+4.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 68% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 64% typical for Texas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Texas's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Dowell Middle School
Dowell Middle School's state test result (68.1% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dowell Middle School this school | 995 | 22.4% | 68.1% |
| John M Tidwell Middle School ROANOKE | 1,062 | 22.8% | 63.2% |
| Timberview Middle School FORT WORTH | 967 | 26.0% | 59.1% |
| J W Williams Middle School ROCKWALL | 819 | 19.8% | 65.9% |
| Wylie West Junior High School ABILENE | 1,038 | 19.7% | 62.1% |
| Victory Lakes Intermediate School LEAGUE CITY | 944 | 26.2% | 57.6% |
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 Dowell Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Texas | In Collin County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 68.1% | #125 of 1,635 | #22 of 51 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 65.0% | #208 of 1,670 ▼ 64 | #30 of 57 ▼ 7 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 72.0% | #253 of 1,670 ▼ 21 | #33 of 57 ▼ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +24.5pp | #158 of 1,570 | #6 of 52 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 995 | #287 of 1,749 | #20 of 57 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.1:1 | #622 of 1,542 | #14 of 57 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 63.1% | #397 of 1,543 | #45 of 57 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 22.4% | #1,541 of 1,648 | #31 of 51 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -16.5% | #444 of 942 | #13 of 29 |
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
995
-113 (-10%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
14.1:1
was 15.4:1
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 | 995 | 70.8 | 14.1:1 | 22% (223) |
| 2023-24 | 1,046 | 75.2 | 13.9:1 | 25% (266) |
| 2022-23 | 1,076 | 71.9 | 15.0:1 | 26% (283) |
| 2020-21 | 1,108 | 72 | 15.4:1 | 25% (281) |
| 2017-18 | 1,192 | 75.6 | 15.8:1 | 21% (248) |
| 2015-16 | 1,165 | 75 | 15.5:1 | 23% (266) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Dowell Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 17% (1,192 to 995); teachers down 6% (75.6 to 70.8).
About Dowell Middle School
At 301 S E RDG RD in MCKINNEY, Texas, Dowell Middle School operates as a large middle school. The school offers grades 6 through 8 and enrolls 995 students. The school is 55% larger than the average for middle schools in Texas.
Dowell Middle School is one school in MCKINNEY ISD, a system of 33 schools with 23,296 students.
At Dowell Middle School, 54% of students are White. After that, the student body is 24% Hispanic, 10% Black, 6% Asian, and 5% multiracial. Census estimates put Collin County at about 54% White, close to the school's figure. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Dowell Middle School scores 63%.
Staffing at Dowell Middle School comes to 70.8 full-time-equivalent teachers, or 14.1:1. That is in line with the 14.4:1 average for middle schools in Texas. Dowell Middle School counts 22% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate across its state test results with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. For Dowell Middle School, the prediction is 64.1% and the result is 68.1%.
Collin County is the school's county. There, the median household earns about $121,600 a year, roughly 56% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 5%. Dowell Middle School shares Collin County with 337 other public schools.
About 0.4 miles separate Dowell Middle School from the closest public school, Gary and Bobbye Jack Minshew Elementary School. The five-mile area around Dowell Middle School holds at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools average 65.1% on proficiency, and Dowell Middle School is above that at 68.1%.
The school's locale code, Suburb: Large, means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment fell 10% over 4 years, reaching 995 in 2024-25. The ratio was 15.4:1 in 2020-21 and 14.1:1 in 2024-25.
Dowell Middle School has a community page on allk12 for topics such as pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Collin County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,163,337
Census ACS
Median income
$121,600
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
56%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
338
227,575 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in MCKINNEY ISD
- McKinney High SchoolHigh · 2,668 students
- McKinney Boyd High SchoolHigh · 2,547 students
- McKinney North High SchoolHigh · 2,387 students
- Dr Jack Cockrill Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,210 students
- Scott Morgan Johnson Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,108 students
- Faubion Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,033 students
Other schools in MCKINNEY
- McKinney High SchoolHigh · 2,668 students
- McKinney Boyd High SchoolHigh · 2,547 students
- McKinney North High SchoolHigh · 2,387 students
- Emerson High SchoolHigh · 1,844 students
- Imagine International Academy of North TexasCombined · 1,445 students
- Dr Jack Cockrill Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,210 students
Nearby schools
- Gary and Bobbye Jack Minshew Elementary School0.4 mi · 433
- Glen Oaks Elementary School0.5 mi · 478
- McKinney Boyd High School1.1 mi · 2,547
- Lizzie Nell Cundiff McClure Elementary School1.3 mi · 661
- Dean and Mildred Bennett Elementary School1.5 mi · 425
- Earl & Lottie Wolford Elementary School1.5 mi · 389
Frequently asked questions
About Dowell Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Dowell Middle School?
Dowell Middle School enrolls approximately 995 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does Dowell Middle School serve?
Dowell Middle School serves grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Dowell Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Dowell Middle School is approximately 14.1:1 (71 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Dowell Middle School?
Dowell Middle School reports a student body of 54% White, 24% Hispanic, 10% Black, 6% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Dowell Middle School in?
Dowell Middle School is part of MCKINNEY ISD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.