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Best Dallas Middle Schools


The 2020 best Dallas middle schools lists on this page identify the traditional open enrollment, selective enrollment and charter middle schools located in the Dallas Fort Worth metro area that scored highest on the 2019 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) evaluations administered statewide by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

To make the evaluation of each schools’s academic performance more precise and meaningful, an academic performance index that indicates the relative combined STAAR score of each Texas middle and junior high school has been constructed. The way it works is that a school with an academic performance index level at 82.6 would have combined STAAR scores that are 17.4 percent lower than the scores of the state’s top performing middle school. Each school also has been assigned an academic performance score based on its rank in the overall academic performance index. Schools that rank among top 10 percent of schools included this study received an academic performance score of 10, schools in the next lower ninth decile received a score of 9, and so on. Accountability ratings awarded by the TEA in were not considered in this ranking analysis since in addition to STAAR scores these ratings take into account factors that generally have no meaningful linkage to the academic performance of individual students, such as changes in student performance at the school on the STAAR evaluations from one year to the next. Such factors may be meaningful to administrators and teachers, but not to most parents or students. Also not considered in this study are frequently, sometimes purposefully, misleading subjective factors such as opinions of self-selected contributors of anonymous parent and student reviews and "expert insights" regarding teacher quality.

Most of the schools listed in the complete Dallas area public middle schools rankings are traditional open enrollment schools that are operated by local independent school districts (ISDs) and a relatively few are selective enrollment schools, also operated by local ISDs, and charter schools that are operated by non-profit corporations, higher education institutions and governmental entities, including ISDs. Clicking on these 2020 top DFW open enrollment middle schools, 2020 top DFW selective enrollment middle schools and 2020 top DFW charter middle schools jump links displays those ranking views. A comprehensive list of Dallas area public middle schools and additional information about how the rankings were derived are provided on this complete Dallas public middle schools rankings page.

Open enrollment middle schools

Of the 357 DFW public middle and junior high schools included in this analysis, 307 are traditional open enrollment schools at which the only requirement for admittance is student residency in the school's attendance area. The 25 DFW area open enrollment middle schools that rank highest in academic performance and the cities/towns they serve are shown below.

The data presented in this table can be sorted by clicking on the table headings. You also can limit the data display to a single school or school district by typing the name of a school or school district in the Search box. Additional performance and other information for middle schools located in the communities profiled on this website can be accessed by clicking on the name of the school.


2020 top DFW open enrollment middle schools

rankcampusdistrictstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
attended by students living in
1Dawson Middle SchoolCarroll ISD65191.5A97Colleyville, Keller, Southlake
2Lawler Middle SchoolFrisco ISD70989.9A97Frisco
3Rice Middle SchoolPlano ISD1,04488.5A96Plano
4Fowler Middle SchoolFrisco ISD1,04486.7A96Plano
5Carroll Middle SchoolCarroll ISD72386.5A96Grapevine, Southlake, Westlake
6Coppell Middle School EastCoppell ISD95585.6A96Coppell, Irving
7Willow Springs Middle SchoolLovejoy ISD72584.3A96Fairview, Lucas, Allen, McKinney, Wylie
8Pioneer Heritage Middle SchoolFrisco ISD94583.7A95Frisco
9Pearson Middle SchoolFrisco ISD86882.4A95Frisco
10McKamy Middle SchoolLewisville ISD88179.1A95Flower Mound
11Coppell Middle School WestCoppell ISD1,28978.8A94Coppell, Irving
12Nelson Middle SchoolFrisco ISD78878.7A95Frisco
13Coppell Middle School NorthCoppell ISD98378.5A94Coppell
14Ereckson Middle SchoolAllen ISD1,24177.9A94Allen, McKinney
15Griffin Middle SchoolFrisco ISD84476.4A94Frisco, Little Elm
16Vandeventer Middle SchoolFrisco ISD85476.2A94Frisco, Plano
17Murphy Middle SchoolPlano ISD1,21476.0A94Lucas, Murphy, Parker, Richardson, Wylie
18Schimelpfenig Middle SchoolPlano ISD85675.5A94Plano
19Downing Middle SchoolLewisville ISD50775.5A94Double Oak, Flower Mound
20Smithfield Middle SchoolBirdville ISD80775.4A94Hurst, North Richland Hills
21Highland Park Middle SchoolHighland Park ISD1,13075.2A94Dallas, Highland Park, University Park
22Shadow Ridge Middle SchoolLewisville ISD69475.1A94Flower Mound
23Curtis Middle SchoolAllen ISD1,34574.5A94Allen, McKinney
24Harwood Junior High SchoolHurst Euless-Bedford ISD99471.6A93Bedford
25Rogers Middle SchoolProsper ISD1,62771.6A93Prosper, Celina, Frisco, McKinney
26Hunt Middle SchoolFrisco ISD83671.5A93Frisco, Plano
27Wester Middle SchoolFrisco ISD80771.1A93Frisco
28Maus Middle SchoolFrisco ISD97270.8A93Frisco, Little Elm
29Colleyville Middle SchoolGrapevine-Colleyville ISD62970.8A93Colleyville, Euless, Grapevine, Hurst
30Trent Middle SchoolFrisco ISD91970.7A93Frisco
31Cooper Junior High SchoolWylie ISD92970.2A93Murphy, Sachse, Wylie
32Medlin Middle SchoolNorthwest ISD1,12170.0A93Northlake, Roanoke, Southlake, Trophy Club
33Ford Middle SchoolAllen ISD92569.6A93Allen, Lucas, Parker
34Sunnyvale Middle SchoolSunnyvale ISD60169.6A93Sunnyvale
35Bedford Junior High SchoolHurst Euless-Bedford ISD85969.4A93Bedford, Colleyville
36Cockrill Middle SchoolMcKinney ISD1,27468.9A93McKinney
37Dowell Middle SchoolMcKinney ISD1,18268.0A93McKinney
38Williams Middle SchoolRockwall ISD82467.9A92Rockwall
39Indian Springs Middle SchoolKeller ISD98267.7A92Keller
40Harpool Middle SchoolDenton ISD91367.6A92Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon, Flower Mound
41Scoggins Middle SchoolFrisco ISD91167.2A92Frisco, McKinney
42Robinson Middle SchoolPlano ISD91467.0A92Plano
43Forestwood Middle SchoolLewisville ISD91166.8A92Flower Mound
44Wester Middle SchoolMansfield ISD1,01066.3A92Mansfield
45Melissa Middle SchoolMelissa ISD75766.3A92McKinney, Melissa,
46Otto Middle SchoolPlano ISD1,10066.3A92Plano, Richardson
47Stafford Middle SchoolFrisco ISD89766.2A92Frisco, Little Elm
48Roach Middle SchoolFrisco ISD92566.0A92Frisco, McKinney
49Keller Middle SchoolKeller ISD1,01965.9A92Keller, Southlake, Westlake
50Killian Middle SchoolLewisville ISD99565.8A92Carrollton, Lewisville


Selective enrollment middle schools

In addition to their open enrollment schools, a number of DFW 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 top DFW selective enrollment middle schools

rankcampusdistrictstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
1Travis Vanguard AcademyDallas ISD521100.0B98
2Dallas Environmental Science AcademyDallas ISD46087.7A96
3Dealey Montessori AcademyDallas ISD60485.9B96
4Longfellow Career Explorations AcademyDallas ISD42985.0A96
5Cedar Hill Collegiate AcademyCedar Hill ISD30074.3A94


Charter middle schools

Generally speaking, any student can apply for admission to a Texas charter school, though the school'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 top DFW charter middle schools

rankcampusdistrictstudentsacademic
performance
index
accountability
rating
STAAR
scaled
score
1Uplift North Hills Preparatory Middle SchoolUplift Education48581.7A95
2ACA Middle SchoolArlington Classics Academy49366.1A92
3PTAA FatePioneer Technology & Arts Academy4362.2A91


Source: Texas Education Agency

Similar Dallas area elementary schools and high schools student performance ranked lists are available on these best DFW public elementary schools and best DFW public high schools pages.Rankings for area school districts are shown on this best DFW school districts page.

 




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