Annual rankings from the education research and advocacy nonprofit Children At Risk showed a mix of widespread improvements and some declines at school districts around the Houston area.

Some districts that improved in the nonprofit’s ranking also made strides in their state accountability ratings, like Aldine ISD.

Among the overall top-performing school districts were: Friendswood ISD, Pearland ISD, Tomball ISD and Harmony Public Schools – Houston West – all with B+ ratings from Children at Risk.

Some charter school districts, which the nonprofit began to include in 2024, made their way into the list of most improved districts – like Arrow Academy and BakerRipley Community Schools – based on their average score points. (Those charters have only one or three schools in their system.)

UNDERSTANDING THE RANKINGS: Children at Risk’s 2025 scores are out. How are they different from TEA accountability scores?

The Houston region saw more pronounced improvements at public school districts. For example, Texas City and Aldine ISDs saw gains at 73% and 72% of their campuses, respectively. Last year, the top district, Spring Branch ISD, improved scores at 70% of its campuses.

This year, nearly 70% of campuses in Alvin, Humble and Cy-Fair ISDs posted higher scores, the Chronicle’s analysis showed.

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Another bright spot: local districts saw fewer campuses lose ground than last year.

Still, some struggled with sliding scores at a majority of their schools. In Spring ISD, which is trying to avoid a state takeover, 73% of schools saw their scores fall – the highest rate among all districts. Klein ISD followed, with 68% of schools with falling scores; Deer Park with 64%; then both Spring Branch ISD and Goose Creek CISD at 63%.

Children at Risk released its rankings Monday, which are aimed at helping parents, educators and community members understand how schools and districts are performing and where improvements may be needed. The scores are based on school performance data from the last school year, using student performance scores on state math and reading tests, as well as high school achievement data.

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Districts also saw large leaps in their average total score points. Charters like Arrow Academy and BakerRipley Community Schools saw a 33-point and 11-point increase, respectively. Public school districts such as Dickinson, Danbury and Hempstead ISDs saw double-digit increases, ranging between 21 points and 12 points.

All five districts with the biggest average score drops were charters. A+ Unlimited Potential saw the greatest decline with a 33-point drop. The Academy of Accelerated Learning dropped 27 points on average. And Beatrice Mayes Institute saw a 20-point drop. Both Step Charter and Southwest Public Schools saw their average total scores drop by more than ten points. (Many of those schools only have one or two campuses in their network.)

Last year, Children at Risk changed its methodology to include more charter schools that had not previously been ranked due to data limitations.

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This article originally published at Houston’s best and worst performing school districts in 2025, according to Children at Risk.