Best High Schools In Texas

BEST HIGH SCHOOLS
IN AUSTIN

BEST HIGH SCHOOLS
IN DALLAS

BEST HIGH SCHOOLS
IN HOUSTON

BEST HIGH SCHOOLS
IN SAN ANTONIO

The 2020 best Texas 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.

About 80 percent of the 1,620 high schools included in the comprehensive public high schools in Texas ranking analysis presented on this Texas high schools page are open enrollment schools operated by local independent school districts. The remaining schools are pretty evenly split between selective enrollment schools, also by operated by local school districts, and charter schools operated by non-profit corporations, higher education institutions and governmental entities, including independent school districts. Clicking on these 2020 top Texas open enrollment high schools, 2020 top Texas selective enrollment high schools and 2020 top Texas charter high schools jump links displays those rankings.

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Each of the Texas 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 Texas 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 1,620 high schools included in this study are available by clicking on this complete Texas 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 Texas 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	Highland Park High School	Highland Park ISD	2,148	78.0	A	96	72.1%	59.7%	78.2%	Dallas, Highland Park, University Park
2	Westlake High School	Eanes ISD	2,767	77.0	A	96	66.8%	75.4%	59.9%	Austin, West Lake Hills
3	Carroll Senior High School / Carroll High School	Carroll ISD	2,712	76.2		96	56.8%	68.2%	71.4%	Colleyville, Grapevine, Southlake, Westlake
4	Lovejoy High School	Lovejoy ISD	1,524	74.6	A	96	62.6%	65.3%	55.8%	Fairview, Lucas, Allen, McKinney, Wylie
5	Seven Lakes High School	Katy ISD	3,617	72.8	A	96	56.2%	77.3%	41.9%	Katy
6	Westwood High School	Round Rock ISD	2,756	72.5	A	94	70.1%	87.0%	46.4%	Austin
7	Clements High School	Fort Bend ISD	2,545	71.3	A	95	58.6%	83.5%	39.4%	Sugar Land
8	Reedy High School	Frisco ISD	1,882	70.9	A	96	54.4%	60.9%	46.0%	Frisco
9	Tompkins High School	Katy ISD	3,750	70.9	A	95	57.3%	72.9%	34.6%	Fulshear, Katy
10	Wakeland High School	Frisco ISD	2,063	70.1	A	95	49.4%	65.2%	46.3%	Frisco
11	Coppell High School	Coppell ISD	3,598	69.6	A	94	58.1%	66.5%	68.3%	Coppell, Irving
12	Liberty High School	Frisco ISD	1,967	69.4	A	95	53.1%	66.8%	45.1%	Frisco
13	Vandergrift High School	Leander ISD	2,708	69.0	A	93	66.9%	77.0%	51.8%	Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, Volente
14	The Woodlands High School	Conroe ISD	4,342	67.5	A	94	49.1%	72.8%	45.4%	Conroe, Spring, The Woodlands
15	Centennial High School	Frisco ISD	1,983	66.8	A	95	47.4%	60.3%	39.9%	Frisco
16	Plano West Senior High School / Jasper High School / Shepton High School	Plano ISD	5,611	65.8		93	55.8%	70.2%	45.6%	Dallas, Plano
17	Cinco Ranch High School	Katy ISD	3,171	65.1	A	94	46.8%	69.3%	34.7%	Katy
18	Independence High School	Frisco ISD	2,070	65.1	A	94	51.4%	58.8%	37.1%	Frisco
19	Reagan High School	North East ISD	3,480	64.6	A	94	50.7%	72.8%	21.3%	San Antonio
20	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
21	Flower Mound High School	Lewisville ISD	3,615	63.3	A	93	42.1%	74.5%	42.8%	Flower Mound, Lewisville
22	Bowie High School	Austin ISD	2,914	62.7	A	94	42.7%	64.4%	18.2%	Austin
23	Keller High School	Keller ISD	3,075	62.4	A	94	38.0%	58.8%	48.8%	Colleyville, Fort Worth, Hurst, Keller, North Richland Hills, Southlake, Westlake
24	Lake Travis High School	Lake Travis ISD	3,212	62.4	A	93	47.7%	64.1%	48.1%	Austin, Dripping Springs, Spicewood
25	Johnson High School	North East ISD	3,149	62.2	A	94	44.2%	64.8%	22.2%	San Antonio
26	Taylor High School	Katy ISD	2,884	61.6	A	94	41.3%	67.4%	27.7%	Houston, Katy
27	Cypress Woods High School	Cypress Fairbanks ISD	3,428	61.4	A	94	41.3%	50.9%	41.4%	Cypress
28	Champion High School	Boerne ISD	1,738	61.2	A	93	45.6%	61.4%	38.4%	Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch, San Antonio
29	Heritage High School	Frisco ISD	1,992	61.0	A	94	40.3%	51.9%	34.0%	Frisco
30	Cypress Ranch High School	Cypress Fairbanks ISD	3,054	60.5	A	94	36.0%	55.6%	41.9%	Cypress
31	Cedar Park High School	Leander ISD	2,081	60.5	A	92	52.1%	67.7%	47.4%	Cedar Park
32	Round Rock High School	Round Rock ISD	3,501	60.3	A	93	46.8%	76.1%	28.0%	Austin, Cedar Park, Round Rock
33	Allen High School / Lowery Freshman Center	Allen ISD	6,826	60.1		93	45.0%	57.5%	32.1%	Allen, Lucas, McKinney, Parker
34	Friendswood High School	Friendswood ISD	2,095	59.9	A	93	38.1%	63.9%	32.0%	Friendswood
35	Dawson High School	Pearland ISD	2,576	59.7	A	93	51.6%	62.3%	25.8%	Brookside, Manvel, Pearland
36	Tomball Memorial High School	Tomball ISD	2,310	59.6	A	94	39.9%	54.6%	21.7%	Cypress, Tomball
37	Nelson High School	Northwest ISD	2,499	59.2	A	93	44.8%	66.5%	28.8%	Fort Worth, Northlake, Roanoke, Southlake, Trophy Club
38	College Park High School	Conroe ISD	3,122	59.1	A	93	42.6%	62.1%	36.5%	Conroe, Spring, The Woodlands
39	Port Aransas High School	Port Aransas ISD	187	59.0	A	94	34.4%	61.0%	26.6%	Port Aransas
40	Anderson High School	Austin ISD	2,224	58.8	A	92	50.4%	67.6%	31.4%	Austin
41	Marcus High School	Lewisville ISD	3,195	58.5	A	93	36.9%	58.2%	40.9%	Copper Canyon, Double Oak, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lewisville
42	Kingwood High School	Humble ISD	2,742	58.3	A	93	40.7%	55.0%	40.0%	Houston, Humble, Kingwood, Porter
43	Austin High School	Fort Bend ISD	2,194	58.3	A	93	43.0%	66.9%	22.7%	Elm Grove, Richmond, Sugar Land
44	Vista Ridge High School	Leander ISD	2,383	58.1	A	92	48.7%	56.9%	36.8%	Austin, Leander, Round Rock
45	McKinney Boyd High School	McKinney ISD	2,831	57.2	A	92	45.2%	58.9%	35.0%	McKinney
46	Colleyville Heritage High School	Grapevine-Colleyville ISD	1,973	57.1	A	91	55.5%	65.2%	40.1%	Colleyville, Euless, Grapevine
47	Dripping Springs High School	Dripping Springs ISD	1,950	56.9	A	93	32.2%	58.4%	42.0%	Austin, Driftwood, Dripping Springs
48	Prosper High School	Prosper ISD	3,448	56.7	A	93	33.9%	45.2%	37.9%	Prosper, Celina, Frisco, McKinney
49	Frisco High School	Frisco ISD	1,564	56.6	A	92	41.7%	51.7%	34.4%	Frisco
50	George Ranch High School	Lamar CISD	2,671	56.2	A	93	32.1%	60.7%	18.4%	Rosenberg, Richmond, Sugar Land, Thompson

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.

These factors, probably to a large extent, enabled the two Dallas Independent School District schools that rank highest among Texas selective enrollment high schools to frequently be recognized in national surveys as two of the best high schools in the U.S. In any event, they also top this 2018 Texas best public high schools ranking.

2020 Texas 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	School for the Talented and Gifted	Dallas ISD	359	100.0	A	99	98.5%	98.5%	100.0%
2	School of Science and Engineering	Dallas ISD	497	95.4	A	98	99.0%	98.6%	95.6%
3	Carnegie Vanguard High School	Houston ISD	808	94.4	A	98	97.9%	100.0%	83.8%
4	Liberal Arts and Science Academy	Austin ISD	1,238	94.4	A	99	98.8%	91.8%	58.2%
5	Rangel Young Women's Leadership School	Dallas ISD	549	91.6	A	98	90.8%	93.9%	83.1%
6	DeBakey High School for Health Professions	Houston ISD	891	90.8	A	98	97.8%	100.0%	55.0%
7	Health Careers High School	Northside ISD	862	85.1	A	98	78.9%	94.8%	39.5%
8	Kinder High School For Performing And Visual Arts	Houston ISD	752	77.2	A	96	65.1%	91.6%	25.7%
9	Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts	Dallas ISD	999	73.7	A	95	70.0%	74.9%	56.3%
10	Challenge Early College High School	Houston ISD	463	73.6	A	95	76.9%	81.2%	9.4%
11	Lassiter Early College High School	Dallas ISD	245	73.5	A	96	50.9%	82.7%	50.9%
12	Garcia Early College High School	Laredo ISD	420	72.8	A	95	92.0%	55.5%	22.0%
13	Sanders Law Magnet	Dallas ISD	409	71.7	A	96	53.3%	72.3%	26.7%
14	Eastwood Academy	Houston ISD	432	71.7	A	95	78.1%	83.4%	4.8%
15	Clear Horizons Early College High School	Clear Creek ISD	443	71.7	A	95	60.4%	91.7%	34.4%
16	Kerr High School	Alief ISD	796	71.5	A	95	61.0%	88.2%	13.3%
17	The Science Academy of South Texas	South Texas ISD	774	71.3	A	94	74.0%	81.2%	37.7%
18	School of Health Professions	Dallas ISD	549	71.0	A	97	38.8%	76.1%	31.7%
19	Richards School for Young Women Leaders	Austin ISD	856	70.9	A	93	76.3%	84.4%	57.0%
20	Sharyland Advanced Academic Academy	Sharyland ISD	385	69.1	A	94	64.5%	73.1%	41.4%
21	School of Business and Magement	Dallas ISD	505	68.5	A	96	43.3%	75.8%	23.5%
22	Garza Early College High School	Dallas ISD	438	67.5	A	96	31.7%	73.3%	21.3%
23	Achieve Early College High School	McAllen ISD	483	66.6	A	95	67.9%	47.5%	17.9%
24	International School of America	North East ISD	494	66.5	A	94	56.3%	71.5%	37.1%
25	Sorrells School of Education and Social Services	Dallas ISD	306	66.2	A	94	54.8%	71.5%	20.2%
26	Mansfield Frontier High School	Mansfield ISD	128	66.1	A	97	31.7%	49.5%	23.1%
27	East Early College High School	Houston ISD	476	66.0	A	95	51.4%	83.8%	9.5%
28	Silva Heath Magnet	El Paso ISD	749	66.0	A	95	37.4%	81.3%	12.2%
29	Young Women's Leadership Academy	Fort Worth ISD	416	65.4	A	92	86.1%	75.0%	22.2%
30	North Houston Early College High School	Houston ISD	484	65.3	A	94	62.4%	74.8%	4.6%
31	Victory Early College High School	Aldine ISD	399	64.0	A	93	65.6%	72.1%	25.3%
32	Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy	Grand Prairie ISD	830	63.6	A	94	52.2%	70.1%	16.9%
33	Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences	Fort Worth ISD	397	63.5	A	93	48.9%	89.7%	21.2%
34	Alief Early College High School	Alief ISD	401	63.3	A	95	32.4%	74.0%	13.2%
35	New Tech High School at Coppell	Coppell ISD	319	62.4	A	93	47.6%	55.6%	60.3%
36	Talkington School for Young Women Leaders	Lubbock ISD	465	62.3	A	93	52.5%	71.3%	22.5%
37	Valle Verde Early College High School	Ysleta ISD	403	61.7	A	94	42.0%	72.7%	17.1%
38	Brownsville Early College High School	Brownsville ISD	394	61.6	A	93	45.5%	77.3%	19.3%
39	Arlington Collegiate High School	Arlington ISD	407	61.5	A	95	35.1%	70.6%	3.1%
40	High School for Health Professions	South Texas ISD	791	61.5	A	93	58.4%	62.7%	32.3%
41	Mission Collegiate High School	Mission CISD	406	61.4	A	93	63.4%	46.6%	18.3%
42	Spring Early College High School	Spring ISD	420	61.3	A	93	55.6%	72.8%	25.6%
43	Steele Accelerated High School	Northwest ISD	186	60.4	A	94	27.3%	65.9%	27.3%
44	Obama Male Leadership Academy	Dallas ISD	461	60.3	B	93	42.0%	79.0%	35.0%
45	Judson Early College Academy	Judson ISD	481	60.2	A	95	6.0%	90.0%	10.0%
46	Transmountain Early College High School	El Paso ISD	416	59.6	A	94	31.7%	68.3%	4.8%
47	Harlingen School of Health Professions	Harlingen CISD	421	59.4	A	94	36.5%	65.6%	14.9%
48	Houston Academy for International Studies	Houston ISD	495	59.2	A	94	31.3%	74.1%	7.6%
49	Business, Education and Technology Academy	South Texas ISD	598	58.5	A	91	71.7%	57.6%	25.2%
50	Early College Academy	Clint ISD	297	58.4	A	93	51.1%	57.4%	1.1%

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 Texas 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	BASIS San Antonio Shavano Campus	BASIS Texas	1,058	86.6	A	96	100.0%	100.0%	42.4%
2	Uplift North Hills Preparatory High School	Uplift Education	531	85.4	A	95	90.8%	81.7%	85.2%
3	Westlake Academy	Westlake Academy Charter School	879	83.1	A	94	96.9%	73.1%	78.5%
4	Imagine International Academy of North Texas	Imagine International Academy of North Texas	1,406	79.2	A	93	100.0%	86.0%	53.1%
5	Young Women's Leadership Academy	San Antonio ISD	495	78.7	A	96	71.4%	91.7%	31.0%
6	Meridian School	Meridian World School	1,648	71.7	A	91	86.4%	77.1%	58.5%
7	IDEA Frontier College Preparatory	IDEA Public Schools	787	69.9	A	91	92.3%	65.4%	45.6%
8	Grand Prairie Collegiate Institute	Grand Prairie ISD	310	66.4	A	94	40.0%	90.0%	10.0%
9	Harmony School of Innovation - Katy	Harmony School of Science	589	66.3	A	93	59.5%	75.7%	8.1%
10	Travis Early College High School	San Antonio ISD	381	65.8	A	95	36.5%	78.7%	12.5%
11	Harmony School of Innovation - Sugar Land	Harmony School of Science	689	64.1	A	93	45.5%	77.7%	19.0%
12	Chaparral Star Academy	Chaparral Star Academy	385	64.0	A	93	50.0%	69.7%	19.7%
13	Richland Collegiate High School	Richland Collegiate High School	592	63.9	A	95	23.9%	74.9%	23.9%
14	TCPA Founders Classical Academy	Texas College Preparatory Academies	921	63.6	A	91	51.8%	74.1%	50.0%
15	IDEA Toros College Preparatory	IDEA Public Schools	141	62.0	A	92	77.3%	2.3%	31.8%
16	Uplift Summit International High School	Uplift Education	484	62.0	B	85	79.7%	65.6%	41.2%
17	Harmony School of Innovation - Fort Worth	Harmony Science Academy	893	61.1	A	90	57.1%	87.8%	21.4%
18	YES Prep - Southeast	YES Prep Public Schools	999	61.0	A	89	72.9%	67.4%	23.7%
19	Gateway College Preparatory School	Orenda Charter School	1,300	60.9	A	92	42.9%	68.8%	25.0%
20	NYOS Charter School	NYOS Charter School	655	60.2	A	90	61.1%	62.1%	33.3%
21	Harmony Science Academy - El Paso	Harmony Science Academy	863	59.6	A	91	66.1%	62.5%	10.7%
22	IDEA College Preparatory	IDEA Public Schools	755	59.6	A	83	91.0%	21.7%	46.3%
23	Harmony Science Academy - Carrollton	Harmony Science Academy	499	59.6	A	91	50.0%	84.8%	1.4%
24	IDEA Edinburg College Preparatory	IDEA Public Schools	722	59.2	A	91	71.7%	4.3%	33.7%
25	Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts High School	Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts	339	58.7	A	92	32.6%	65.2%	32.6%

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