JOHN W CARPENTER EL vs UMPHREY LEE EL

Umphrey Lee El edges out John W Carpenter El in overall rating by 0.2 points — 8.8 versus 8.6 out of 10 — but the state rank gap is more telling: Umphrey Lee El sits at #339 of 8,547 Texas schools while John W Carpenter El ranks #522, placing both schools firmly in the top 7 percent statewide. Parents evaluating either school can take confidence that both outperform the vast majority of elementary schools in Texas, though Umphrey Lee El holds a clear positional advantage at the state level.

On academics, Umphrey Lee El scores 8.2 out of 10 versus John W Carpenter El's 7.6 — a 0.6-point difference that reflects consistently stronger proficiency outcomes. The growth picture reverses sharply: John W Carpenter El earns a 9.9 growth score against Umphrey Lee El's 9.3, meaning students at John W Carpenter El are gaining ground academically at a faster rate relative to expectations. For families where trajectory matters as much as current performance, John W Carpenter El's near-perfect growth score is a meaningful signal.

Both schools serve PK through 5th grade and are separated by just 3.1 miles, but they differ substantially in size and staffing. John W Carpenter El enrolls 189 students with a 9.4:1 student-teacher ratio, while Umphrey Lee El serves 431 students at 13.5:1. That gap — roughly four additional students per teacher at Umphrey Lee El — translates to less individual attention per child on average. Free and reduced lunch eligibility is high at both campuses: 93 percent at John W Carpenter El and 98 percent at Umphrey Lee El, indicating both schools serve predominantly low-income communities and are achieving strong outcomes within that context.

Both schools cover the same PK–05 grade span, so no program-level distinction applies on grade range alone. The structural differences — enrollment nearly 2.3 times larger at Umphrey Lee El, a tighter student-teacher ratio at John W Carpenter El — shape the day-to-day school experience more than any single test score. A family weighing classroom intimacy against stronger raw academic scores will find a genuine trade-off between these two Dallas elementaries.