CHILDREN AT RISK Releases 2023-2024 Annual Texas School Rankings 

Media Contacts:

Morgan Gerri, 832.600.9354

Rashena Franklin, 713.301.4577

DALLAS, TX (February 3, 2025) – Over the past 20 years, CHILDREN AT RISK has ranked Texas public schools to help parents, educators, and community members better understand how their local schools are performing and spark dialogue on the quality of public education across Texas.

The 2023-2024 Texas School Rankings reveal significant trends shaping public education in Texas. Schools across the state continue to show improvement, particularly at the middle and high school levels, with college readiness seeing the most progress. While the number of Gold Ribbon Schools—high-performing campuses serving low-income students—has increased by 50% since last year, only 17% of all low-income schools in Texas meet the high-quality threshold.

CHILDREN AT RISK hosted a press conference on Wednesday, February 5th, at 10:30 am to announce the North Texas region’s Top 5 high, middle, and elementary schools, along with the Top Gold Ribbon Schools.

The Gold Ribbon School sub-lists highlight high-performing, high-poverty schools that are traditional neighborhood campuses; magnet schools and charter schools are not included in the Gold Ribbon School sub-lists. High-poverty schools are identified as campuses that are more than 75% economically disadvantaged. Those campuses that receive an A or a B in the CHILDREN AT RISK rankings are considered high performing, high poverty.

The 2023-2024 school year analysis covers 1,128 public schools in North Texas, including 717 elementary schools and 279 middle schools ranked across three main areas and 132 high schools ranked across four main areas:

• Student Achievement
  • How students do on state standardized tests (STAAR)
• Campus Performance
  • How a school compares in test scores to schools with similar levels of poverty
• Student Growth
  • How students improve on their STAAR tests in a school year
• College Readiness – High Schools Only
  • How many high school students are graduating on time and participating in other college-readiness activitie

A school’s performance on each of the items above is averaged to calculate its ranking for the 2023-2024 school year.

About CHILDREN AT RISK

CHILDREN AT RISK is a research and advocacy nonprofit leading the way in improving the quality of life for Texas’ children. CHILDREN AT RISK considers the whole child by tracking issues in children’s health, safety, education, and economic security to improve equity and justice for all Texas families. Committed to action beyond the data, CHILDREN AT RISK drives evidence-based change by speaking out on behalf of children. For more information, visit childrenatrisk.org, Facebook, and Twitter.