KEY EL

As a cozy K-5 school in ARLINGTON, Texas, KEY EL enrolls 391 students from grades pre-K through 6, overseen by ARLINGTON ISD. By comparison, Texas's public schools average about 519 students each, so KEY EL sits 25% below that benchmark.

KEY EL is one of 75 schools operated by ARLINGTON ISD, a district that enrolls 53,394 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, KEY EL lists that the largest single group is Black at 42%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school records 37% Hispanic, 11% White, 6% multiracial, 3% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 18% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, KEY EL has 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.1:1, putting KEY EL tighter than the state norm the norm. Around 82% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is noticeably above Tarrant County's rate of about 63%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, KEY EL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 38.1%, the actual is 24.8%, a residual of -13.3 points.

In the area at large, Tarrant County reports that the typical household earns roughly $84,207 per year, roughly 35% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Across Tarrant County's 639 public schools (combined enrollment of about 385,835 students), KEY EL is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: SHORT EL, around 1.0 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts KEY EL at 8th of 8; the average score across the group is 43.9%.

The campus sits in a suburban setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 19%: 483 students in 2018 compared to 391 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 28% to 11% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 15.8:1 in 2018 to 12.1:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the KEY EL community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.