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What tradition at THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
470
Elementary
DISTRICT 496 · STATE 519
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MCALLEN ISD·NCES 482967011960
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL
2500 GALVESTON AVE, MCALLEN, TX 78501 · (956) 971-4377 · Hidalgo County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL470 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.9:1
32 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.7:1 · STATE 15.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
97%
454 students
DISTRICT 75% · 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
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
STAAR 2023-24 . % Meets Grade Level or AboveReading
64.0%
TX avg 51.8% . +46.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
67.0%
TX avg 42.0% . +44.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 64 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 67 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 52 and 42. Reading scores are up about 46 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 44 points.
Source: STAAR. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of TX schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
63.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
31.7%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+31.6pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 63% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 32% typical for Texas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 32 points, placing it in Texas's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
470
-116 (-20%) vs 2017
Student : Teacher
14.9:1
was 15.0:1
% White
0%
was 1%
% Hispanic
99%
was 99%
% Black
0%
was 0%
% Asian
1%
was 0%
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
About THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL is a medium-sized primary school in MCALLEN, Texas, one of the schools within MCALLEN ISD. The school works with 470 students in grades pre-K through 5.
Across the 31 schools in MCALLEN ISD (19,890 students total), THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL accounts for its share of the district's footprint.
On demographics, THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL logs that 99% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority.
On the income-and-resources front, The school employs 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 14.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 97% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is north of Hidalgo County's rate of about 85%.
Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL ranks in the top 10% of Texas public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 31.7%; THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL posts 63.3%, +31.6 points above that line.
Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Hidalgo County) records that the typical household earns roughly $54,338 per year, about 21% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 23%. Across Hidalgo County's 364 public schools (combined enrollment of about 212,859 students), THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL is one campus in the mix.
INSTR/GUID CENTER is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 50.5%.
Geographically, the school is in an urban area.
Five-year trend. THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL's enrollment has ticked down 20% since 2018, when it stood at 586 (now 470).
On this page, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Hidalgo County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
891,977
Census ACS
Median income
$54,338
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
21%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
23%
Below federal line
Schools in county
364
212,859 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in MCALLEN ISD
- MCALLEN H SHigh · 2,134 students
- MEMORIAL H SHigh · 2,021 students
- ROWE H SHigh · 1,905 students
- MORRIS MIDDLEMiddle · 999 students
- CATHEY MIDDLEMiddle · 827 students
- GONZALEZ ELElementary · 818 students
Other schools in MCALLEN
- MCALLEN H SHigh · 2,134 students
- MEMORIAL H SHigh · 2,021 students
- MORRIS MIDDLEMiddle · 999 students
- CATHEY MIDDLEMiddle · 827 students
- IDEA MCALLEN COLLEGE PREPARATORYHigh · 820 students
- GONZALEZ ELElementary · 818 students
Nearby schools
- INSTR/GUID CENTER0.1 mi · 60
- TRIUMPH PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS-MCALLEN0.8 mi · 118
- ALVAREZ EL0.9 mi · 435
- ESCANDON EL0.9 mi · 478
- HORIZON MONTESSORI - STEM ACADEMY1.1 mi · 331
- WILSON EL1.3 mi · 408
Frequently asked questions
About THIGPEN-ZAVALA ELHow many students attend THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL?
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL enrolls approximately 470 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL serve?
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL have?
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL employs 32 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.9:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL?
At THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL, the student body is approximately 0% White, 99% Hispanic, 1% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Is THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL public or private?
THIGPEN-ZAVALA EL is a public K-12 school, overseen by MCALLEN ISD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.