PONDER EL

PONDER EL is an elementary school of average-sized scale in PONDER, Texas, overseen by PONDER ISD, caters to 773 students in grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 49% larger than the state mean of about 519.

Within PONDER ISD, which oversees 3 schools and 1,719 students, PONDER EL is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, PONDER EL records that White students make up the majority at 56%. Other groups include 39% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the resource side, PONDER EL reports 52 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 14.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 45% of students at PONDER EL qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Denton County (around 35%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, On a poverty-adjusted basis, PONDER EL sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 54.1%; actual is 31.4%, a gap of -22.7 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Denton County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $111,498 per year, 49% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Denton County runs 267 public schools (combined enrollment of about 175,222 students), of which PONDER EL is one.

Nearest neighbor: PONDER J H, around 0.2 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around PONDER EL. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts PONDER EL at 8th of 8; the average score across the group is 55.8%.

PONDER EL operates from a countryside location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PONDER EL has ticked up 18%, going from 655 students in 2018 to 773 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment climbed from 32% to 39% over that span.

On this page, the feed for PONDER EL typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.