The 12 Best High Schools in Texas, Ranked

It earns the top spot on one rule that no other school here has the nerve to copy. To graduate from TAG you take at least ten AP courses, and the school does not quietly lower the bar to keep the numbers up. In 2024 its students sat 1,961 AP exams and 91 percent of those scored a 3 or better, with an average score of 3.95. Every junior and senior was tested. Nobody sat it out.

What makes that hold up is who is doing it. About 41 percent of TAG students are low income, and every senior graduated in 2023-24. The school opened in 1982 and moved into the Townview building in Oak Cliff in 1995. It shares three floors there with five other Dallas magnets. U.S. News put it first in Texas and ninth in the country for 2025-2026. That is ahead of schools in towns where houses cost more than most people earn in a decade.

The way in is narrow. About 135 ninth graders start each year. The window runs from November 1 to January 31. The district takes no late forms, not even from families moving to Dallas over the summer. There is no way in as a junior or senior at all. If your child is a rising eighth grader in Dallas ISD with an 80 average and a qualifying test score, this is the year to apply.

No school in Texas posts test scores like these. The average SAT at LASA is 1397 and the average ACT is 30.4, against state figures of 978 and 19.2. Then look at how many students are in the mix. Of juniors and seniors, 96.7 percent take an AP or IB exam. Of those, 94.9 percent pass. Those two numbers rarely go together, because schools usually protect a high pass rate by testing fewer students.

The school has a tangled history. Austin ISD started the LBJ Science Academy in 1985 and the Liberal Arts Academy at Johnston High School in 1987, then merged them in 2002. LASA spent years on the LBJ campus. The board voted in 2017 to make it a school of its own. It moved to Arthur Stiles Road in east Austin in 2021. About 1,517 students are enrolled, which makes it three times the size of TAG.

It sits second rather than first for one reason. Only 11.5 percent of LASA students are low income, the smallest share on this list. More of its result comes from who walks in the door. Admission runs on test scores, past work and teacher recommendations, and the school gives the CogAT to applicants. Start gathering recommendations in the fall of eighth grade.

Almost nobody here skips the test. At Carnegie Vanguard, 98.8 percent of juniors and seniors sit an AP or IB exam. That is the highest share of any school we checked. Of those students, 89.9 percent pass. Every senior graduated, no student dropped out, and 96.7 percent of graduates left ready for college in both reading and math. The average SAT is 1317 and the average ACT is 28.

Vanguard is Houston ISD’s word for its gifted and talented magnets, and Carnegie is the flagship. About 824 students attend and 38 percent of them are low income. That puts it with TAG rather than the suburban schools further down this list. U.S. News ranked it fifth in Texas for 2025-2026.

One number gives us pause: 21.4 students per teacher. Those are the most crowded classrooms on this list, half again as many as Westlake. That shows up in reviews, where Carnegie rates lower with families than schools posting weaker results. Admission is by application through Houston ISD, so an address in the right neighborhood does nothing for you here.

This is the only school in our top five where getting in is luck rather than a score, and that is why it ranks this high. DeBakey is a Title I magnet and seats are drawn by lottery. No entrance exam, no minimum grade average, no audition. Then the school graduates every senior. It sends 94 percent of them out college ready in both reading and math. Its AP pass rate was 92.1 percent across 1,640 exams in 2025.

It opened in 1972 as a partnership between Houston ISD and Baylor College of Medicine. It still sits on Pressler Street inside the Texas Medical Center. Students take six health science credits, from anatomy to phlebotomy. Then they spend two years in a preceptorship, doing clinical hours in the medical center itself. Of the 173 graduates in the class of 2025, 93 percent went to four year colleges.

The trade is real. Graduation takes 32 credits and 100 service hours, so little room is left for electives. Niche users rate the school 3.7, the lowest score on this list. Some of that is workload and some of it is a campus with no fields and no traditional high school life. If your child wants medicine and you would rather not gamble on a test score, enter the lottery.

Two thirds of the students here are low income, and they sat 2,104 AP exams in a single year. That is more exams than TAG, from a school of about the same size. Here 64.9 percent of students are low income. Every senior graduated in 2023-24 and 99 percent left college ready. U.S. News ranked it third in Texas and 23rd in the country.

SEM opened in 1982 under a federal order to desegregate Dallas schools. The goal was to move more Black and Hispanic students into science and engineering careers. It joined TAG at Townview in 1995.

About 501 students attend. New students go into one of three math and science tracks. A placement test and their past work decide which one. A strong eighth grader does not spend a year repeating things.

It sits below TAG because the AP pass rate is 71 percent rather than 91. That is the honest gap between two schools sharing a hallway. There are no sports teams, so athletes play for the school they would otherwise attend. Reviewers describe long walks between classes and crowded halls, which is what happens when six schools share three floors. Apply through the Dallas ISD magnet process with at least an 80 average.

Look at the two numbers together and you understand why U.S. News put this school second in Texas. Seventy-seven percent of Rangel students are low income. One hundred percent of its seniors graduate. Very few schools in the country pull off both at once, and none of the suburban campuses further down this list are asked to try.

Rangel opened in 2004 as the first all girls public school in Texas and sent out its first graduating class of 21 students in 2009. It sits on Robert B. Cullum Boulevard near Fair Park, not on the Townview campus with the other Dallas magnets, and it serves grades 6 through 12. Chronic absence runs at 3.6 percent against a state figure closer to 23 percent, which tells you these students show up.

The catch is size. Only about 292 of its 617 students are in grades 9 through 12, and a small high school cannot run a wide course list. Students say so plainly in reviews: a niche interest often has no class to match it. There is almost no athletics, and 74 percent of reviewers say clubs exist while only 46 percent think they are funded properly. Apply through the Dallas ISD magnet process, and know that entry in sixth grade is the easier door.

This is the best deal in Texas public education and hardly anyone outside the Rio Grande Valley has heard of it. There is no entrance exam and no lottery. Any student who lives in Hidalgo, Willacy or Cameron county can enroll. Half the student body is low income. The average SAT is 1213 against a state average of 978. The average ACT is 24.6 against 19.2.

Every senior graduates, nobody drops out, and 91.6 percent of graduates leave ready for college in both reading and math. The school runs on Project Lead the Way, which is a national engineering and biomedical curriculum, and it holds that program’s Distinguished School designation. College credit starts freshman year through dual credit and career certifications, so students can finish high school with real hours banked.

The weak spot is the AP pass rate of 61.6 percent, the lowest here, even though 79.4 percent of juniors and seniors sit the exams. That is the reverse of LASA’s pattern and it costs the school several places. The other honest problem is geography. Three counties is a lot of ground to cross twice a day. Families in the far corners of the region face a real commute.

San Antonio’s version of DeBakey does most of the same things well. Health Careers graduates 99.5 percent of its seniors. It gets 84.7 percent of juniors and seniors into an AP or IB exam, and 72.1 percent of them pass. The average ACT is 26.7. About 921 students attend, and 26.7 percent of them are low income. That is a broader mix than most magnets manage.

It is a Northside ISD magnet in the South Texas Medical Center. Teaching hospitals and research buildings sit a short drive away. That closeness is the whole point of the program. The health science work runs all four years. It is not an elective bolted onto a normal schedule. That is the difference between a real pathway school and a school with a health club.

Two things hold it at eighth. Only 76.6 percent of graduates are college ready in both reading and math, well behind DeBakey’s 94 percent, and the gap is mostly in math. Reviewers also mention broken elevators and aging facilities, along with a fast pace and heavy workload. There is no football and no basketball. The club list is shorter than at a regular high school.

Westlake is the best school in Texas that your child can attend without filling anything out. There is no application, no audition and no lottery. You live in Eanes ISD and you go.

On that basis it posts an average SAT of 1275 and an average ACT of 27.9. It graduates 97.8 percent of its seniors. Of the students who sit AP or IB exams, 87.8 percent pass. It holds an A from the state for 2024-25.

The school opened in 1969 and held its first classes in the permanent building on Westbank Drive on August 31, 1970. About 2,850 students attend now, at 14.3 students per teacher, which is a genuinely small ratio for a school that size. It is a regular high school rather than a magnet, so students get the full menu that TAG and Carnegie cannot offer. Varsity sports, marching band, theater, the lot.

Then there is the price, and it is not tuition. The median home sale in the 78746 zip code ran about $2.35 million in June 2026. Eanes ISD also cut 69 full time positions through attrition to close a budget gap for 2025-26. Reviewers describe cliques and a good deal of pressure that comes with the money, and only 4.9 percent of students are low income. If you already live there, this is a very good school. If you do not, the entry fee is a mortgage.

Nowhere in Texas runs AP at this volume. Carroll Senior students took 4,004 AP exams in 2024 and 86 percent of them scored a 3 or better, across 28 different AP courses. The class of 2023 produced 38 National Merit finalists and 51 commended scholars. Ninety-nine percent of the class of 2024 went on to more schooling and 94 percent went to four year colleges. Not one student in any group dropped out.

Carroll ISD splits its high school across two buildings. Freshmen and sophomores go to Carroll High School. Everyone then moves here for junior and senior year. That is why enrollment is about 1,422, and why the state grades only its Student Achievement score. Both campuses feed one athletic program, the Southlake Carroll Dragons, who have won eight football state championships.

The reasons it sits tenth are the same reasons the results look so clean. Under 1 percent of students are low income. That is the least mixed campus on this list by a wide margin. The average home in the 76092 zip code was worth about $1.32 million in May 2026. Students themselves name the lack of diversity and the pressure as the main problems, along with facility issues. Moving buildings after sophomore year splits up friendships too.

Seven Lakes does something the other suburban schools on this list do not. It posts a 92.2 percent AP pass rate, the best of any zoned school here. And 22.2 percent of its students are low income. Westlake gets 87.8 percent with 4.9 percent low income. Carroll gets 86 percent with under 1 percent. Same results, much harder population, and it is the only school on this list holding an A in all three state rating areas.

The school opened for the 2005-06 year on South Fry Road in Katy, in Fort Bend County rather than Harris. About 3,750 students attend, which makes it the biggest campus on this list. Graduation runs at 98.6 percent, the dropout rate is 0.1 percent, and 81.1 percent of graduates leave college ready in reading and math. The average SAT is 1230 and the average ACT is 27.6.

Size is the drawback. Classes run at 18 students per teacher, well above the state figure of 14. Reviewers point to dated theater and lunch spaces. They also say counseling cannot keep up with 3,750 students picking courses. Only 51.8 percent of juniors and seniors sit an AP exam, so the high pass rate comes partly from a smaller pool. Katy ISD does accept transfers, but the board decides each year which campuses are closed.

Every school above this one is measured on academics alone, and by that yardstick Kinder HSPVA would rank lower. It belongs here because it does something none of them do. Students audition into a single art area and spend four years in it, and the school has produced 32 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts since 1981. It still graduated 99 percent of the class of 2025, and 183 of its 184 graduates went on to more schooling.

HSPVA opened in 1971. In 2019 it moved into a building on Austin Street in downtown Houston and took the Kinder name after a foundation gift. About 799 students attend. The academic side holds up better than most arts schools manage. In 2025, 88 percent of its 1,296 AP exams scored a 3 or better. AP courses run from Calculus AB to Music Theory.

Two numbers keep it twelfth. The average SAT for 2025 was 1171. And 87.3 percent of graduates were college ready in both subjects. Both are the lowest here. Only 21.8 percent of students are low income, which is low for a citywide magnet, and auditions favor children whose families paid for lessons. Audition dates for the coming year are posted on the school site, and you pick one art area rather than sampling several.