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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.

Most Texas high schools offer a four-year curriculum at a single campus, but some school districts have chosen to operate separate campuses for ninth grade students or for ninth and tenth grade students. In this analysis, the performance metrics for Texas high schools that are a part of these multiple campus arrangements are combined and the schools are evaluated in the same manner as the four-year, single-campus high schools. Other independent school districts and some charter districts operate schools that teach more than four grades. The STAAR assessment student performance metric used in this best Texas high schools ranking is for all grade levels taught at those schools.

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
rankcampus(es)districtstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
AP / IBSATACTattended by students living in
1Seven Lakes High SchoolKaty ISD3,61772.8A9656.2%77.3%41.9%Katy
2Clements High SchoolFort Bend ISD2,54571.3A9558.6%83.5%39.4%Sugar Land
3Tompkins High SchoolKaty ISD3,75070.9A9557.3%72.9%34.6%Fulshear, Katy
4The Woodlands High SchoolConroe ISD4,34267.5A9449.1%72.8%45.4%Conroe, Spring, The Woodlands
5Cinco Ranch High SchoolKaty ISD3,17165.1A9446.8%69.3%34.7%Katy
6Memorial High SchoolSpring Branch ISD2,61663.8A9256.8%82.1%47.5%Bunker Hill, Hedwig Village, Hunters Creek, Hunters Creek Village, Piney Point, Spring Valley
7Taylor High SchoolKaty ISD2,88461.6A9441.3%67.4%27.7%Houston, Katy
8Cypress Woods High SchoolCypress Fairbanks ISD3,42861.4A9441.3%50.9%41.4%Cypress
9Cypress Ranch High SchoolCypress Fairbanks ISD3,05460.5A9436.0%55.6%41.9%Cypress
10Friendswood High SchoolFriendswood ISD2,09559.9A9338.1%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
rankcampus(es)districtstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
AP / IBSATACT
1Carnegie Vanguard High SchoolHouston ISD80894.4A9897.9%100.0%83.8%
2DeBakey High School for Health ProfessionsHouston ISD89190.8A9897.8%100.0%55.0%
3Kinder High School For Performing And Visual Arts>Houston ISD75277.2A9665.1%91.6%25.7%
4Challenge Early College High SchoolHouston ISD46373.6A9576.9%81.2%9.4%
5Eastwood AcademyHouston ISD43271.7A9578.1%83.4%4.8%
6Clear Horizons Early College High SchoolClear Creek ISD44371.7A9560.4%91.7%34.4%
7Kerr High SchoolAlief ISD79671.5A9561.0%88.2%13.3%
8East Early College High SchoolHouston ISD47666.0A9551.4%83.8%9.5%
9North Houston Early College High SchoolHouston ISD48465.3A9462.4%74.8%4.6%
10Victory Early College High SchoolAldine ISD39964.0A9365.6%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
rankcampus(es)districtstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
AP / IBSATACT
1Harmony School of Innovation - KatyHarmony School of Science58963.2A9359.5%75.7%8.1%
2Harmony School of Innovation - Sugar LandHarmony School of Science68960.8A9345.5%77.7%19.0%
3YES Prep - SoutheastYES Prep Public Schools99955.9A8972.9%67.4%23.7%
4TCPA iSchool High at University ParkTexas College Preparatory Academies33854.4A9468.8%16.3%
5Harmony School of Advancement HoustonHarmony School of Excellence63353.2A8855.0%80.2%23.4%

 




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