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Best High Schools In Austin
The 2020 best Austin public high schools lists on this page identify the traditional open enrollment, selective enrollment and charter high schools that currently rank highest in both the learning success of all of their students and preparing their college-bound students for the next step in their educational experience.
Clicking on these 2020 top Austin open enrollment high schools, 2020 top Austin selective enrollment high schools and 2020 top Austin charter high schools jump links displays those rankings. The high schools identified in these lists also are among the top ranked high schools in the state of Texas.
Each of the Austin high schools included in this ranking analysis was evaluated using three metrics: students' performance on the 2019 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) evaluations administered by the Texas Education Commission, participation in and successful completion of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, and percentage of students taking the SAT and ACT college admission tests and their performance on those tests. Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability ratings were not considered in this analysis since these ratings also take into account factors that generally have no meaningful linkage to the learning success of individual students, such as student demographics and changes in student performance on the STAAR evaluations from one year to the next.
Unlike some other best Austin high school rankings, this analysis examined only the most credible and most current student performance data available and no consideration was given to student demographics, changes in student performance over time on the STAAR tests, and other such factors or to subjective factors such as anonymous self-selected reviews and statistically invalid online opinion surveys.
Additional information about how the performance of these high schools was evaluated and ranked in this analysis, how overall academic performance was graded, and the 2020 rankings for all 77 high schools included in this study are available by clicking on this complete Austin public high schools rankings link.
Open enrollment high schools
Open enrollment high schools are single campus and multiple campus traditional public high schools operated by independent school districts at which the only requirement for admittance is residency in the district and school attendance area.
2020 Austin top open enrollment high schools
| % students met criteria | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rank | campus(es) | district | students | academic performance index | accountability rating | STAAR scaled score | AP / IB | SAT | ACT | attended by students living in |
| 1 | Westlake High School | Eanes ISD | 2,767 | 77.0 | A | 96 | 66.8% | 75.4% | 59.9% | Austin, West Lake Hills |
| 2 | Westwood High School | Round Rock ISD | 2,756 | 72.5 | A | 94 | 70.1% | 87.0% | 46.4% | Austin |
| 3 | Vandergrift High School | Leander ISD | 2,708 | 69.0 | A | 93 | 66.9% | 77.0% | 51.8% | Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, Volente |
| 4 | Bowie High School | Austin ISD | 2,914 | 62.7 | A | 94 | 42.7% | 64.4% | 18.2% | Austin |
| 5 | Lake Travis High School | Lake Travis ISD | 3,212 | 62.4 | A | 93 | 47.7% | 64.1% | 48.1% | Austin, Dripping Springs, Spicewood |
| 6 | Cedar Park High School | Leander ISD | 2,081 | 60.5 | A | 92 | 52.1% | 67.7% | 47.4% | Cedar Park |
| 7 | Round Rock High School | Round Rock ISD | 3,501 | 60.3 | A | 93 | 46.8% | 76.1% | 28.0% | Austin, Cedar Park, Round Rock |
| 8 | Anderson High School | Austin ISD | 2,224 | 58.8 | A | 92 | 50.4% | 67.6% | 31.4% | Austin |
| 9 | Vista Ridge High School | Leander ISD | 2,383 | 58.1 | A | 92 | 48.7% | 56.9% | 36.8% | Austin, Leander, Round Rock |
| 10 | Dripping Springs High School | Dripping Springs ISD | 1,950 | 56.9 | A | 93 | 32.2% | 58.4% | 42.0% | Austin, Driftwood, Dripping Springs |
Selective enrollment high schools
In addition to their traditional open enrollment schools, a number of Texas school districts also operate selective enrollment schools. Selective enrollment schools provide career-oriented or specialized curriculum in addition to academic subjects, and admittance typically is based on students' previous academic performance and interests demonstrated in student interviews, auditions, essays, and other similar faculty assessments. As would be expected, since admission to selective enrollment schools generally is highly selective and limited, the average standardized test results of the selective enrollment schools generally are much higher than results attained by the open enrollment schools that their students otherwise would attend.
2020 Austin top selective enrollment high schools
| % students met criteria | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rank | campus(es) | district | students | academic performance index | accountability rating | STAAR scaled score | AP / IB | SAT | ACT |
| 1 | Liberal Arts and Science Academy | Austin ISD | 1,238 | 94.4 | A | 99 | 98.8% | 91.8% | 58.2% |
| 2 | Richards School for Young Women Leaders | Austin ISD | 856 | 70.9 | A | 93 | 76.3% | 84.4% | 57.0% |
| 3 | Colorado River Collegiate Academy | Bastrop ISD | 206 | 55.1 | A | 93 | 36.2% | 47.9% | 7.5% |
Charter high schools
Generally speaking, any student can apply for admission to a Texas charter school, though the charter district's charter can specify certain restrictions. A typical example of this would be that a student must reside in a specific town or city in order to apply for admission. In most cases, the school's admissions policy also will describe its lottery process. A charter school must use a lottery process when the number of applications to the school exceeds the number of available spaces.
2020 Austin top charter high schools
| % students met criteria | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rank | campus(es) | district | students | academic performance index | accountability rating | STAAR scaled score | AP / IB | SAT | ACT |
| 1 | Meridian School | Meridian World School | 1,648 | 67.3 | A | 91 | 86.4% | 77.1% | 58.5% |
| 2 | Chaparral Star Academy | Chaparral Star Academy | 385 | 60.6 | A | 93 | 50.0% | 69.7% | 19.7% |
| 3 | NYOS Charter School | NYOS Charter School | 655 | 55.3 | A | 90 | 61.1% | 62.1% | 33.3% |
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