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Best Houston High Schools
The 2020 best Houston 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 Houston open enrollment high schools, 2020 top Houston selective enrollment high schools and 2020 top Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston 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 227 high schools included in this study are available by clicking on this complete Houston 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 Houston 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 | Seven Lakes High School | Katy ISD | 3,617 | 72.8 | A | 96 | 56.2% | 77.3% | 41.9% | Katy |
| 2 | Clements High School | Fort Bend ISD | 2,545 | 71.3 | A | 95 | 58.6% | 83.5% | 39.4% | Sugar Land |
| 3 | Tompkins High School | Katy ISD | 3,750 | 70.9 | A | 95 | 57.3% | 72.9% | 34.6% | Fulshear, Katy |
| 4 | The Woodlands High School | Conroe ISD | 4,342 | 67.5 | A | 94 | 49.1% | 72.8% | 45.4% | Conroe, Spring, The Woodlands |
| 5 | Cinco Ranch High School | Katy ISD | 3,171 | 65.1 | A | 94 | 46.8% | 69.3% | 34.7% | Katy |
| 6 | Memorial High School | Spring Branch ISD | 2,616 | 63.8 | A | 92 | 56.8% | 82.1% | 47.5% | Bunker Hill, Hedwig Village, Hunters Creek, Hunters Creek Village, Piney Point, Spring Valley |
| 7 | Taylor High School | Katy ISD | 2,884 | 61.6 | A | 94 | 41.3% | 67.4% | 27.7% | Houston, Katy |
| 8 | Cypress Woods High School | Cypress Fairbanks ISD | 3,428 | 61.4 | A | 94 | 41.3% | 50.9% | 41.4% | Cypress |
| 9 | Cypress Ranch High School | Cypress Fairbanks ISD | 3,054 | 60.5 | A | 94 | 36.0% | 55.6% | 41.9% | Cypress |
| 10 | Friendswood High School | Friendswood ISD | 2,095 | 59.9 | A | 93 | 38.1% | 63.9% | 32.0% | Friendswood |
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 Houston 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 | Carnegie Vanguard High School | Houston ISD | 808 | 94.4 | A | 98 | 97.9% | 100.0% | 83.8% |
| 2 | DeBakey High School for Health Professions | Houston ISD | 891 | 90.8 | A | 98 | 97.8% | 100.0% | 55.0% |
| 3 | Kinder High School For Performing And Visual Arts> | Houston ISD | 752 | 77.2 | A | 96 | 65.1% | 91.6% | 25.7% |
| 4 | Challenge Early College High School | Houston ISD | 463 | 73.6 | A | 95 | 76.9% | 81.2% | 9.4% |
| 5 | Eastwood Academy | Houston ISD | 432 | 71.7 | A | 95 | 78.1% | 83.4% | 4.8% |
| 6 | Clear Horizons Early College High School | Clear Creek ISD | 443 | 71.7 | A | 95 | 60.4% | 91.7% | 34.4% |
| 7 | Kerr High School | Alief ISD | 796 | 71.5 | A | 95 | 61.0% | 88.2% | 13.3% |
| 8 | East Early College High School | Houston ISD | 476 | 66.0 | A | 95 | 51.4% | 83.8% | 9.5% |
| 9 | North Houston Early College High School | Houston ISD | 484 | 65.3 | A | 94 | 62.4% | 74.8% | 4.6% |
| 10 | Victory Early College High School | Aldine ISD | 399 | 64.0 | A | 93 | 65.6% | 72.1% | 25.3% |
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 Houston 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 | Harmony School of Innovation - Katy | Harmony School of Science | 589 | 63.2 | A | 93 | 59.5% | 75.7% | 8.1% |
| 2 | Harmony School of Innovation - Sugar Land | Harmony School of Science | 689 | 60.8 | A | 93 | 45.5% | 77.7% | 19.0% |
| 3 | YES Prep - Southeast | YES Prep Public Schools | 999 | 55.9 | A | 89 | 72.9% | 67.4% | 23.7% |
| 4 | TCPA iSchool High at University Park | Texas College Preparatory Academies | 338 | 54.4 | A | 94 | 68.8% | 16.3% | |
| 5 | Harmony School of Advancement Houston | Harmony School of Excellence | 633 | 53.2 | A | 88 | 55.0% | 80.2% | 23.4% |
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