HARPER EL

Located at 8080 CR 398, in PRINCETON, Texas, HARPER EL is a mid-sized elementary school that educates 642 students (grades K through 5), operated by PRINCETON ISD. That puts it 24% above the typical public school in Texas, which averages around 519 students.

Within PRINCETON ISD, which oversees 14 schools and 9,956 students, HARPER EL is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, HARPER EL reports that the most-represented group is Black (30%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest reads as 26% Hispanic, 22% White, 17% Asian, 5% multiracial. By comparison, Collin County as a whole is about 11% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 39 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.7:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 15.1:1 average. An estimated 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is higher than Collin County's rate of about 30%.

After controlling for student poverty, HARPER EL sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 52.1%; this one delivers 43.8%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Collin County put median household earnings sit near $121,600, about 56% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. HARPER EL is one of 338 public schools in Collin County (combined enrollment of about 227,575 students).

Nearest neighbor: JAMES EL, around 1.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around HARPER EL. On composite proficiency, HARPER EL comes 6th of 7 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 46.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Trend over the last 7 years. HARPER EL's enrollment has grew 23% since 2018, when it stood at 521 (now 642). Hispanic enrollment moved from 64% to 26% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 15.5:1 in 2018 to 16.7:1 today.

On the community side, members of the HARPER EL community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.