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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the SHANDS EL administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
567
Elementary
DISTRICT 507 · STATE 519
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MESQUITE ISD·NCES 483039003418
Shands Elementary School
4836 SHANDS DR, MESQUITE, TX 75150 · (972) 290-4020 · Dallas County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL567 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
43 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.6:1 · STATE 15.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
86%
488 students
DISTRICT 82% · STATE 65%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 59 | 10% |
| Kindergarten | 83 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 78 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 95 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 90 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 79 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 83 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (83) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (83).
Student demographics
39%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 53% · 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
43.0%
TX avg 54.5% . +13.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
41.0%
TX avg 45.3% . +6.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 43 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 41 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 55 and 45. Reading scores are up about 13 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Performance levels, 2025-26
| Subject | Masters Grade Level | Meets Grade Level | Approaches Grade Level | Did Not Meet Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 18.0% | 25.0% | 24.0% | 33.0% |
| Mathematics | 13.0% | 28.0% | 25.0% | 34.0% |
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 | 43.0% | 41.0% |
| 2024-25 | 42.0% | 37.0% |
| 2023-24 | 39.0% | 35.0% |
| 2022-23 | 46.0% | 54.0% |
| 2021-22 | 51.0% | 42.0% |
| 2020-21 | 30.0% | 35.0% |
% 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
33.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.9%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 33% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 37% 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 Shands Elementary School
Shands Elementary School's state test result (33.1% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shands Elementary School this school | 567 | 86.1% | 33.1% |
| Montclair Elementary School GARLAND | 557 | 85.6% | 34.5% |
| Range Elementary School MESQUITE | 587 | 86.5% | 41.4% |
| Mary Lou Hartman SAN ANTONIO | 568 | 83.3% | 30.6% |
| Global Leadership Academy at Barbara Bush Elementary School GRAND PRAIRIE | 555 | 83.4% | 31.9% |
| Jensen Elementary School PASADENA | 567 | 83.2% | 51.4% |
Matched among Texas elementary 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 Shands Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Texas | In Dallas County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 33.1% | #3,360 of 4,401 | #294 of 421 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 41.0% | #2,772 of 4,466 ▲ 304 | #236 of 429 ▲ 45 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 43.0% | #3,380 of 4,466 ▼ 42 | #302 of 429 ▼ 8 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -8.0pp | #470 of 3,998 | #67 of 399 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 567 | #1,889 of 4,938 | #147 of 448 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.1:1 | #895 of 4,622 | #59 of 432 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.0% | #3,109 of 4,628 | #265 of 433 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 86.1% | #1,474 of 4,789 | #226 of 437 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -31.3% | #446 of 2,838 | #55 of 274 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
567
-61 (-10%) vs 2020
-7% since 1990-91, when it was 609
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
was 15.3:1
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 | 567 | 43.2 | 13.1:1 | 86% (488) |
| 2023-24 | 554 | 43.1 | 12.8:1 | 90% (497) |
| 2022-23 | 551 | 39.8 | 13.8:1 | 89% (490) |
| 2020-21 | 628 | 41 | 15.3:1 | 85% (534) |
| 2017-18 | 825 | 51.7 | 15.9:1 | 83% (687) |
| 2015-16 | 945 | 59 | 16.0:1 | 86% (814) |
| 2010-11 | 804 | 50 | 16.1:1 | 81% (650) |
| 2000-01 | 547 | 30 | 18.2:1 | 32% (174) |
| 1990-91 | 609 | 27 | 22.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Shands Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 31% (825 to 567); teachers down 17% (51.7 to 43.2).
About Shands Elementary School
Shands Elementary School is a medium-sized elementary school in MESQUITE, Texas, one of the schools in MESQUITE ISD. It covers pre-K through 5, with a total enrollment of 567 students.
District-wide, MESQUITE ISD has 51 schools and 37,930 students.
Hispanic students make up a majority at Shands Elementary School, at 76%. Next come 16% Black and 5% White. That compares with about 41% Hispanic among all Dallas County residents. The school's diversity index is 39%, meaning two students picked at random have a 39% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
A ratio of 13.1:1 comes from the school's 43.2 full-time-equivalent teachers. That is 2.0 students per teacher below the 15.1:1 average for elementary schools in Texas. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 86% in 2024-25. The gap from the 77% average for public schools in Dallas County is 9 points.
After adjusting for student poverty, Shands Elementary School lands between the top and bottom 10% of Texas schools. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 33.1%; the prediction is 36.9%.
Census estimates describe Dallas County this way: the median household income is $76,547, about 36% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and about 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Dallas County has 771 public schools and roughly 459,645 students.
The closest public school to Shands Elementary School is Florence Elementary School, about 0.5 miles away. Shands Elementary School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. The school's 33.1% average proficiency ranks 9th among 9 nearby schools.
For locale, NCES codes Shands Elementary School as Suburb: Large.
Enrollment is down 10% from 2020-21, when Shands Elementary School had 628 students, to 2024-25, when it had 567. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio fell to 13.1:1, from 15.3:1.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news at Shands Elementary School. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Dallas County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,621,179
Census ACS
Median income
$76,547
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
36%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
771
459,645 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in MESQUITE ISD
- Horn High SchoolHigh · 2,757 students
- Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 2,294 students
- North Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 2,099 students
- West Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 1,997 students
- Vroonland - Vanguard High SchoolHigh · 1,605 students
- Poteet High SchoolHigh · 1,523 students
Other schools in MESQUITE
- Horn High SchoolHigh · 2,757 students
- Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 2,294 students
- North Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 2,099 students
- West Mesquite High SchoolHigh · 1,997 students
- Vroonland - Vanguard High SchoolHigh · 1,605 students
- Poteet High SchoolHigh · 1,523 students
Nearby schools
- Florence Elementary School0.5 mi · 509
- Vanston Middle School0.6 mi · 728
- Pioneer Technology (ptaa) Mesquite1.1 mi · 484
- Larry G Smith Elementary School1.1 mi · 681
- Price Elementary School1.3 mi · 299
- Lawrence Elementary School1.4 mi · 284
Frequently asked questions
About Shands Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Shands Elementary School?
Shands Elementary School enrolls approximately 567 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Shands Elementary School serve?
Shands Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Shands Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Shands Elementary School is approximately 13.1:1 (43 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Shands Elementary School?
Student demographics at Shands Elementary School are roughly 5% White, 76% Hispanic, 16% Black, 1% Asian, 2% Two or more.
What district is Shands Elementary School in?
Shands Elementary School is part of MESQUITE ISD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.