The overview
Texas schools are rated on an A-F scale based on three criteria: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps, as previously reported by Community Impact. Elementary and middle school ratings are largely based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which students begin taking in third grade. High school ratings are based on the STAAR and how well students are prepared for success after graduation.
HISD received 79 out of 100 points for 2023-24 and 82 out of 100 points for 2024-25, TEA data shows.
The improvement marks a 10-point jump from the district’s score of 72 for the 2022-23 school year, TEA data shows. In June 2023, the TEA appointed HISD Superintendent Mike Miles and a board of managers to lead the district after Wheatley High School posted five consecutive failing grades in the ratings.
During the board's Aug. 14 meeting, Miles said 197 of the district’s schools earned an A or B rating in the 2025 ratings, up from 93 in 2023.
“We have 80,000 more students attending A and B schools this year than there were a few years ago,” Miles said. “The kids have done remarkably well.”
State law requires that annual A-F ratings be issued by Aug. 15 of each year; however, the 2024 ratings were blocked for nearly one year after 33 school districts sued the TEA last August, arguing that the agency made it “mathematically impossible” for some schools to earn a high score and waited too long to notify districts about changes to the state accountability system.
Texas' 15th Court of Appeals ruled in July that the 2024 ratings could be released, and the TEA later announced they would be issued alongside the 2025 ratings.
“Millions of dollars and thousands of hours of work by teachers, administrators and experts have been invested in creating the A-F ratings system; courts can decide only whether it is legal, not whether it is wise or fair, much less commandeer the job of running it,” Chief Justice Scott Brister wrote in the ruling.
Also of note
Across the state, most school districts and campuses maintained or improved their A-F ratings between the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 school years. Of Texas' 1,208 school districts, 24% received a higher rating, while 64% kept the same rating and 12% received a lower rating, TEA data shows.
TEA data shows that in 2025:
- 2,023 campuses earned an A
- 3,005 campuses received a B
- 2,106 campuses scored a C
- 918 campuses received a D
- 389 campuses earned an F
“Year over year, our schools have gotten better across the state for our kids,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told reporters Aug. 14.
HISD had 189,290 and 176,039 students enrolled in 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively. About 79.5% and 77.8% students were economically disadvantaged; 9.1% and 11.5% were in special education programs; and 37% and 39.2% were emergent bilingual students for 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively, TEA data shows.
Out of the HISD campuses located within the Bellaire-West University-Meyerland’s and Heights-River Oaks-Montrose’s coverage areas:
- 20 earned an A
- 16 earned a B
- Five earned a C
- One earned a D
- None earned an F
