Houston's Top High Schools - Ranked by SAT's (2012 scores) (Austin: 2013, neighborhood)

[LizzySWW]

Carnegie Vanguard (Houston) 1883 *a selective admission school*

Debakey HS for Health Professionals (Houston) 1844 *a selective admission school*

Clements High School (Sugarland, TX) 1739

Memorial High School (Houston - Memorial) 1724

Cinco Ranch High School (Katy, TX) 1690

George Ranch High School (Richmond, TX) 1683

Clear Lake High School (Clear Lake, TX) 1677

Seven Lakes High School (Katy, TX) 1657

Woodlands High School (Woodlands, TX) 1652

HS for Performing & Visual Arts (Houston) 1664 *a selective admission school*

Kingwood High School (Kingwood, TX) 1644

Taylor High School (Katy, TX) 1636

Friendswood High School (Friendswood, TX) 1625

Stephen F. Austin HS (Sugarland, TX) 1615

Stratford High School (Houston - West Memorial area) 1609

Kerr Magnet (Houston - Alief area) 1583 *a selective admission school*

Dulles High School (Sugarland, TX) 1571

Bellaire High School (Houston - Bellaire area) 1563

Cypress Ranch High School (Cypress, TX) 1549

Katy High School (Katy, TX) 1532

Dawson High School (Pearland, TX) 1507

Cypress Creek HS (Cypress, TX) 1504

Kempner HS (Sugarland, TX) 1503

Foster High School (Richmond, TX) 1489

Travis High School (Sugarland, TX) 1484

Lamar High School (Houston - River Oaks area) 1474

Pearland High School (Pearland, TX) 1467

Lamar Consolidated HS (Rosenberg, TX) 1454

Westside High School (Houston - West Houston, south of the bayou) 1399

Eastwood Academy (Houston - Eastwood/Downtown area) 1374 *a selective admission school*


Not included are smaller & lower preforming schools (feel free to add them), but the top schools and schools that are often mentioned on the forum should all be on the list.

These 2012 scores were recently released on the TEA website. Finding the info on their site is tricky, from the homepage click district information, next click district locator, then click "text only" under the map, then click district name, scroll to the bottom of all schools to see high schools, when you see the school you want - click on "more information about this school", then click on 2012-2013, scroll down towards the end of the document for the campus avg. SAT score.

[fnh]

I do look at SAT scores as a national metric, but it is also flawed. You have to consider demographics and participation rate. For example, I learned that Lamar (HISD) began requiring ALL 11th graders to take the SAT in 2011, so its mean score will naturally be lower than other schools where only a subset of motivated students take the test.

[GTRdad]

yeah, what if the area's got more asians or the area is 'rich' and cooking their results to make the housing in the area appreciate even more
but this list is better than the other thread

[14Bricks]

So bascially send your kids to either a Magnet school or a suburban school.

[Failed Engineer]

This list is just about as expected, but I am surprised by George Ranch being so high.

[Bad Haggis]

The avg score in the US is 1500 out of 2400. Why is Eastwood even on this list??? Westside??? Anything below the top 10 posted arent good enough to be worth mentioning.

[LizzySWW]

Originally Posted by fnh

I do look at SAT scores as a national metric, but it is also flawed. You have to consider demographics and participation rate. For example, I learned that Lamar (HISD) began requiring ALL 11th graders to take the SAT in 2011, so its mean score will naturally be lower than other schools where only a subset of motivated students take the test.

I just looked into what you posted and TEA's website doesn't show 100% of Lamar(HISD) 11th graders taking the SAT. However, your post make me curious, so I randomly picked the following schools & looked up the % of 11th graders who took the SAT last year. All schools I looked up show 80%+ of 11th graders taking the SAT. (Taylor, Eastwood, Bellaire, Carnegie, Stephen F. Austin)

Looks like it's pretty normal for most 11th graders to take the SAT (in the better schools anyway). I wonder if schools or parents are pushing this? I guess it's a smart thing to do, since studies show that scores generally increase with more practice.

Originally Posted by GTRdad

yeah, what if the area's got more asians or the area is 'rich' and cooking their results to make the housing in the area appreciate even more
but this list is better than the other thread

Seriously, can't you at least give it a rest with school info threads?

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

So bascially send your kids to either a Magnet school or a suburban school.

Houston beats the suburbs for the top "regular" school with Memorial HS. But you're right, unless your kid is in the 2% that can make it into Carnegie or Debakey Medical HS, the burbs are generally a better option.

Originally Posted by Failed Engineer

This list is just about as expected, but I am surprised by George Ranch being so high.

Yeah, me too. I'd pay close attention to this school if I was looking in the outter-ring suburbs. Richmond is very pretty too (I've only been to a few Ranches though, not the newer subdivisions).

Originally Posted by Bad Haggis

The avg score in the US is 1500 out of 2400. Why is Eastwood even on this list??? Westside??? Anything below the top 10 posted arent good enough to be worth mentioning.

Eastwood is on the list because its had some buzz on the forum lately. It's a school by admission only (primarily looks for the best GPA applicants), so it's weird that their SAT averages are so low. But I assume that's because it's a 98% economically disadvantaged school.

[Bad Haggis]

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

So bascially send your kids to either a Magnet school or a suburban school.

Send them to a very poor school in HISD and you'll get a street smart valedictorian with a free ride to college.

[DanielWayne]

That is an interesting and enlightening list. Especially the info for Eastwood - considering all the Eastwood trumpeting we get on here.

[Dopo]

To me this list says more about the neighborhood where the school is locate than the actual school.