Two years into the state takeover, Houston ISD has some of Texas’ most- and least-improved campuses, according to new rankings from Children at Risk.

HISD dominated the Houston area’s most-improved list, according to the education research and advocacy group’s annual 2024-25 rankings. At the same time, HISD had half of the 10 campuses with the biggest year-over-year declines, even though it has less than one-fifth of the region’s schools.

Children At Risk uses three metrics to determine rankings from each school’s scores on state assessments: raw student achievement; achievement relative to poverty levels; and year-over-year student growth. High school rankings include college readiness measures.

Slightly more than half of Houston-area schools improved in the ratings when compared to the year prior, and the region had a higher share of A-rated schools than any other in Texas. In HISD, the largest district in the state, 52% of its campuses improved.

Houston-area schools also improved in the Texas Education Agency’s state accountability ratings this year, mostly due to growth from large districts, including Houston and Aldine ISDs, said Duncan Klussmann, a former Spring Branch ISD superintendent and professor of educational leadership at the University of Houston.

Statewide, schools seem to have adjusted to new accountability standards and recovered more from the pandemic, resulting in better scores, Klussmann said.

“(HISD) had some of the highest improvement scores that we’ve ever seen from an urban school district,” Klussmann said. “People have adjusted to the new administration, the test. They’ve had time to adjust after the pandemic. As a result, we’re seeing increases in performance on the state exam, and we’re seeing increases in people meeting the (college readiness) requirement for high schools.”

CHILDREN AT RISK: Houston beats Dallas, Austin regions with highest share of A-rated schools

Districtwide changes

HISD earned a C+ on the group’s 2025 accountability ratings, outperforming most Houston-area districts, although it did not rank among the five districts with the most improved campuses overall this year.

HISD improved by two points overall this year, aligning with results from the Texas Education Agency’s state accountability ratings.

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District and state leaders have described the improvements as evidence that HISD’s controversial reforms are beginning to pay off. Since the state  takeover in 2023, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and the TEA have emphasized “historic” gains in academic performance.

HISD was already known as a “tale of two cities” before the takeover, with vast differences in students’ socioeconomic status and academic performance across its 274 campuses. Many schools have improved drastically in TEA’s accountability ratings, but HISD still has some of the best and worst schools in the state, according to the latest Children at Risk results.

Bob Sanborn, founder and chief executive officer of Children at Risk, attributes some of HISD’s largest improvements with changes since the state takeover, which introduced state-appointed leadership, staffing and curriculum overhauls. About half of HISD schools are now part of Miles’ New Education System.

“If you’re going to be any school that (improves) like that, it’s because some major changes have happened,” Sanborn said. “It’s more than (NES,) it’s more than curriculum. There have to be some major personalities involved, like a principal, teachers, maybe even a change in students.”

However, Sanborn also said the reforms could have contributed to some HISD campuses slipping in rankings.

“To go to the worst, again, did they lose that great principal and put an incompetent principal in there? Some other big change had to happen,” Sanborn said.

ZOOMING OUT: Houston’s best and worst performing school districts in 2025, according to Children at Risk

HISD’s top campuses

Four elementary schools – including Jefferson, Milne, Valley West and the Woodson School – were among the 10 most improved campuses in the Houston area this year.

Jefferson, a school in Houston’s Near Northside, rose to an A from a D in the state ratings, marking one of the largest turnarounds in Texas with a nearly 50 percentage point increase from last year.

Rounding out HISD’s most-improved schools: Marshall Middle, Ortiz Middle and Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men.

HISD had all of the top five high schools in the Houston area in the group’s rankings, all of which were magnet campuses.

Just one of the area’s top 10 middle schools – T.H. Rogers School, which ranked No. 1 – was an HISD school, while three HISD elementary campuses made the top 10 list.

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Six HISD campuses were among the best in Texas. Those included the Mandarin Immersion Magnet School, West University Elementary, T.H. Rogers, Carnegie Vanguard High School, Debakey School for Health Professions and Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Just under 30 HISD campuses received A ratings from Children at Risk: nine high schools, five middle schools, and 15 elementaries. More than 70 HISD campuses were B-rated.

Cary Wright, chief executive officer of Good Reason Houston, said since the takeover, HISD has made “instruction a North Star” by improving curriculum, training teachers and building its leadership and staff capacity.

“I think it is this commitment and focus on kids. Every neighborhood of our community deserves access to really effective instruction that’s preparing them,” Wright said. “Not just the basics, to read, write, math on grade level, but also to be increasingly thinking about preparation to help them be competitive for some of those opportunities in the future.”

HISD’s worst campuses

HISD’s Lantrip Elementary dropped by more than 40 percentage points, which was among the steepest declines statewide. Four other HISD elementary schools – including Gallegos, Lewis, Love and Smith – also posted some of the worst declines in the Houston area.

Five HISD campuses – including Lantrip, Clemente Martinez, Garcia and Codwell elementaries and Scarborough High School – received F ratings, placing them among the bottom 10% of campuses in the state, according to Children at Risk. Eight high schools, six middle schools and more than 30 elementary schools received D ratings.

Texas Connections Academy Houston, the district’s virtual learning program, received an F for its elementary and high school program and a D- for its middle school offering.

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Despite positive changes, Wright said turnover of campus leadership and other staffing changes could drag down schools’ performance and rankings. In the 2024-25 school year, HISD’s teacher turnover rate was 1.7 times that of the state’s, and by March 2025, there had been at least 177 principal changes.

“There are still the elements of campus leadership turnover,” Wright said. “There are still people involved in all of these campuses. Sometimes you’ve got the right people in the right seats, and other times you don’t.”

Takeaways

Children at Risk’s findings come as HISD continues to navigate fast-paced change under the state takeover. While many schools had rapid academic growth, many have experienced teacher turnover, enrollment declines and an uneven rollout of districtwide reforms.

All but one of the district’s most improved schools were part of HISD’s New Education System, which brings more staffing and resources to lower-performing schools, as well as a stricter instructional model and less autonomy.

However, three of  HISD’s five schools with the most declines were also NES.

“With more resources, we should see significant gains across the board, especially at those lowest performing schools where they’re targeting the most resources,” said Toni Templeton, a senior research scientist at the University of Houston’s Education Research Center. “You have the state saying this is part of a New Education System, that they’re claiming is going to get immediate results, and if we’re having the worst declines there, that tells you something.”

Two of the five F-rated campuses were NES schools.

Just one of the district’s A-rated campuses this year was part of the NES program.

Still, nearly 30 NES campuses, including nearly 25 elementary schools, earned B ratings this year. Some non-NES campuses, such as Lantrip, have been designated as “special focus” schools this year as HISD attempts to improve its state ratings. HISD has partnered with community groups, churches and businesses to give extra support to all of its schools rated Cs and Ds by the state.

Here are all of HISD’s school rankings this year, according to Children at Risk:

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