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If you had an hour of school board time for FINLEY J H, what would you bring up?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
839
Middle
DISTRICT 844 · STATE 643
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WAXAHACHIE ISD·NCES 484473005093
Finley Junior High School
2401 E BROWN ST, WAXAHACHIE, TX 75165 · (972) 923-4680 · Ellis County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL839 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 37% of Texas public middle schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats 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
58 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.0:1 · STATE 14.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
50%
419 students
DISTRICT 50% · 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 | 271 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 293 | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 275 | 33% |
Student demographics
67%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 68% · 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
50.0%
TX avg 54.5% . +12.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
34.0%
TX avg 45.3% . -13.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 50 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 34 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 55 and 45. Reading scores are up about 12 points since 2020, while math scores are down about 13 points.
Performance levels, 2025-26
| Subject | Masters Grade Level | Meets Grade Level | Approaches Grade Level | Did Not Meet Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 24.0% | 26.0% | 27.0% | 23.0% |
| Mathematics | 8.0% | 26.0% | 35.0% | 31.0% |
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 | 50.0% | 34.0% |
| 2024-25 | 50.0% | 36.0% |
| 2023-24 | 48.0% | 42.0% |
| 2022-23 | 32.0% | 33.0% |
| 2021-22 | 35.0% | 33.0% |
| 2020-21 | 38.0% | 47.0% |
% 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
42.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
52.4%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-9.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 43% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 52% 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 Finley Junior High School
Finley Junior High School's state test result (42.7% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finley Junior High School this school | 839 | 49.9% | 42.7% |
| Coleman Junior High School WAXAHACHIE | 775 | 47.4% | 49.1% |
| Ed Willkie Middle School FORT WORTH | 775 | 49.4% | 41.5% |
| Vogel Intermediate School SPRING | 953 | 52.3% | 52.6% |
| Linda Jobe Middle School MANSFIELD | 820 | 54.1% | 49.2% |
| Wilkerson Intermediate School THE WOODLANDS | 711 | 52.2% | 55.5% |
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 Finley Junior High School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Texas | In Ellis County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 42.7% | #808 of 1,635 | #9 of 14 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 34.0% | #1,219 of 1,670 ▼ 152 | #12 of 14 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.0% | #1,060 of 1,670 ▼ 93 | #9 of 14 no change |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +9.5pp | #833 of 1,570 | #9 of 13 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 839 | #494 of 1,749 | #6 of 15 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.5:1 | #727 of 1,542 | #5 of 13 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 66.5% | #289 of 1,543 | #4 of 13 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 49.9% | #1,146 of 1,648 | #10 of 14 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -16.3% | #451 of 942 | N/A |
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
839
+62 (+8%) vs 2020
+15% since 1990-91, when it was 731
Student : Teacher
14.5:1
was 14.9:1
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 | 839 | 58 | 14.5:1 | 50% (419) |
| 2023-24 | 838 | 56.4 | 14.8:1 | 51% (427) |
| 2022-23 | 816 | 59.1 | 13.8:1 | 49% (403) |
| 2020-21 | 777 | 52 | 14.9:1 | 50% (390) |
| 2017-18 | 1,002 | 67.9 | 14.8:1 | 54% (542) |
| 2015-16 | 911 | 66 | 13.8:1 | 60% (543) |
| 2010-11 | 519 | 35 | 14.8:1 | 51% (265) |
| 2000-01 | 902 | 56 | 16.1:1 | 31% (280) |
| 1990-91 | 731 | 43 | 17.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Finley Junior High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 16% (1,002 to 839); teachers down 15% (67.9 to 58).
About Finley Junior High School
Finley Junior High School is a public middle-grades school in WAXAHACHIE, Texas. Grades offered run from 6 through 8, with 839 students enrolled. The average among middle schools in Texas is roughly 643 students; this school is 30% bigger than that.
A total of 18 schools make up WAXAHACHIE ISD, with 11,196 students enrolled.
At Finley Junior High School, the largest share of students is Hispanic, at 42%. After that, the student body is 36% White, 17% Black, and 4% multiracial. Census figures show Ellis County is about 28% Hispanic. Pick two students at random and there is a 67% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Federal records show a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.5:1 at Finley Junior High School, with 58 full-time-equivalent teachers. That is close to the 14.4:1 average for middle schools in Texas. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, a common measure of family income, is 50%. For comparison, public schools in Ellis County average 51%.
The allk12 Grade for Finley Junior High School is C+. Compared with Texas public middle schools, the school scored higher than 37% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
A school with Finley Junior High School's lunch-eligibility share in Texas is predicted to score 52.4%. Finley Junior High School scores 42.7%, 9.6 points below that line.
Federal survey data for Ellis County show that the median household income is $99,595, roughly 30% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. There are 83 public schools in Ellis County, enrolling about 46,344 students in all.
Nearest public school: Felty Elementary School, about 0.6 miles away. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Finley Junior High School ranks 5th of 8 among nearby schools on average proficiency, with 42.7% against a local average of 48.6%.
NCES describes the area around Finley Junior High School as Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Federal data show an 8% enrollment rise, from 777 in 2020-21 to 839 in 2024-25.
The Finley Junior High School community page is open for posts about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Ellis County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
213,160
Census ACS
Median income
$99,595
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
30%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
46,344 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in WAXAHACHIE ISD
- Waxahachie High SchoolHigh · 3,056 students
- Howard Junior High SchoolMiddle · 918 students
- Coleman Junior High SchoolMiddle · 775 students
- Wedgeworth Elementary SchoolElementary · 594 students
- Simpson Elementary SchoolElementary · 592 students
- Marvin Biomedical AcademyElementary · 535 students
Other schools in WAXAHACHIE
- Waxahachie High SchoolHigh · 3,056 students
- Life H S WaxahachieHigh · 1,114 students
- Howard Junior High SchoolMiddle · 918 students
- Coleman Junior High SchoolMiddle · 775 students
- Wedgeworth Elementary SchoolElementary · 594 students
- Simpson Elementary SchoolElementary · 592 students
Nearby schools
- Felty Elementary School0.6 mi · 471
- Simpson Elementary School0.7 mi · 592
- Waxahachie Global High School1.0 mi · 369
- Coleman Junior High School1.0 mi · 775
- Waxahachie H S of Choice1.0 mi · 56
- Howard Junior High School1.0 mi · 918
Frequently asked questions
About Finley Junior High SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Finley Junior High School?
Finley Junior High School enrolls approximately 839 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Finley Junior High School serve?
Finley Junior High School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Finley Junior High School?
Approximately 14.5:1 students per teacher at Finley Junior High School.
How diverse is Finley Junior High School?
Finley Junior High School reports a student body of 36% White, 42% Hispanic, 17% Black, 1% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Finley Junior High School?
Finley Junior High School is overseen by WAXAHACHIE ISD in Ellis County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.