A school can have an A rating and still be failing your child.

That is not an opinion. It is a pattern hiding in plain sight across Texas. Schools where the campus is well funded. Where the overall test scores earn praise. Where the principal sends home a newsletter every Friday talking about how great things are going. And where Black students are passing at rates 30, 40, even 54 points below everyone else in the building.

The gap does not show up in the headline number. It does not show up on the marquee out front. It does not show up in the district’s press release or the rating on the school website. It only shows up when you stop looking at how the school is doing and start asking how Black children specifically are doing.

We asked.

Using 2024–25 TEA TAPR data, we identified the 50 Texas schools with the largest gaps between the school’s overall passing rate and the passing rate for Black students specifically. These are not struggling schools. They are not underfunded. They are schools that work — beautifully, in many cases — for most of the children inside them.

Just not for Black children.

That is not an accident. And it is not acceptable.

They deserve to be named.

What the data measures

Every number in this list comes from the Texas Education Agency’s 2024–25 TAPR data. The metric is Approaches Grade Level or above on the STAAR test. The gap is the difference between the school’s overall passing rate and the passing rate for Black students specifically. A gap of 54 means the school overall passes at a rate 54 points higher than its Black students.

To be on this list, a school must have at least 25 Black students tested and an overall passing rate of 70% or higher. These are not failing schools. These are schools that look successful from the outside. That is exactly the point.

The schools

1. Kealing Middle — Austin ISD Black pass rate: 29% | School average: 83% | Gap: 54 points | Black students: 85

This is the largest gap on the list. 85 Black students at a middle school in Austin — a city that calls itself progressive, that uses the language of equity in every policy document and every school board meeting — where the school overall passes at 83% and Black students pass at 29%. That is not a gap. That is a different school entirely, sharing a building with the one everyone else attends. The children in that building can see each other. The data separating them is invisible to most of their parents.

2. Moss Haven Elementary — Richardson ISD Black pass rate: 24% | School average: 75% | Gap: 51 points | Black students: 34

34 Black children at an elementary school in Richardson, passing at 24%. That means roughly 8 out of every 34 Black students at Moss Haven are passing grade-level tests. The school overall passes at 75%. Something is happening in this building — in classrooms, in groupings, in expectations — that produces this result for Black children specifically. It did not happen by accident.

3. Academy Intermediate — Academy ISD Black pass rate: 37% | School average: 80% | Gap: 43 points | Black students: 27

A 43-point gap at an intermediate school. 27 Black students passing at 37% while the school overall passes at 80%. Academy ISD is a small district between Bryan and Waco that most Texans have never heard of. The children inside it are not invisible.

4. Hosp Elementary — Frisco ISD Black pass rate: 41% | School average: 83% | Gap: 42 points | Black students: 27

Frisco ISD is one of the wealthiest and fastest-growing districts in Texas. It will appear on this list four times. Resources are not the problem. What is happening to Black children in Frisco ISD is a choice — even if nobody in the district will name it that way.

5. John F Ward Elementary — Clear Creek ISD Black pass rate: 34% | School average: 76% | Gap: 42 points | Black students: 35

Clear Creek ISD serves the Houston suburbs south of the city — Friendswood, League City, Webster. 35 Black students at John F Ward Elementary passing at 34%. The school overall passes at 76%. These two numbers describe two different educational experiences inside one building.

6. Hallettsville Junior High — Hallettsville ISD Black pass rate: 39% | School average: 81% | Gap: 42 points | Black students: 49

49 Black students at a junior high in Hallettsville — a small town in South Texas — passing at 39%. In a school where the overall rate is 81%, fewer than 4 in 10 Black students are meeting grade level. The town is small. The gap is not.

7. Troup Middle — Troup ISD Black pass rate: 33% | School average: 74% | Gap: 41 points | Black students: 46

46 Black students in Troup, a small East Texas town, passing at 33%. East Texas has a long and documented history of racial inequity in its schools. The data in 2025 says that history has not resolved.

8. A & M Consolidated Middle — College Station ISD Black pass rate: 31% | School average: 71% | Gap: 40 points | Black students: 97

College Station is home to Texas A&M University. It is a city built around education, research, and the idea that knowledge is what matters most. 97 Black students at A&M Consolidated Middle — the school named for the university that defines this community — are passing at 31% while the school overall passes at 71%. College Station ISD will appear on this list four times. This is not one bad year or one struggling campus. This is a district-wide pattern in a city that has every resource it needs to produce a different result.

9. Bellville Junior High — Bellville ISD Black pass rate: 32% | School average: 71% | Gap: 39 points | Black students: 100

100 Black students. That number matters. 100 is enough to fill a room. 100 is enough to feel in your chest. And fewer than a third of them are passing grade-level tests in a school where 71% of students overall are passing. Bellville is a small town in Austin County, an hour west of Houston. The community is not large. The accountability owed to these 100 children is.

10. ILTexas College Station Elementary — International Leadership of Texas Black pass rate: 33% | School average: 72% | Gap: 39 points | Black students: 36

A charter school in College Station — a school that markets itself on leadership and excellence — where 36 Black students pass at 33% against a 72% school average. The branding and the data are in direct conflict.

11. Allen Elementary — Frisco ISD Black pass rate: 50% | School average: 88% | Gap: 38 points | Black students: 26

Frisco ISD appears for the second time. Half of Black students at Allen Elementary are passing while nearly 9 in 10 students overall pass. This is not a school that is struggling. It is a school that is thriving — for some children.

12. La Grange Middle — La Grange ISD Black pass rate: 39% | School average: 77% | Gap: 38 points | Black students: 62

62 Black middle schoolers in La Grange passing at 39%. La Grange sits in Fayette County, a community with deep historical ties to the German immigrants who settled it and a long history of Black residents whose contributions are less visible in the public narrative. The gap in the school data reflects a gap in something older.

13. Montgomery Junior High — Montgomery ISD Black pass rate: 37% | School average: 74% | Gap: 37 points | Black students: 41

Montgomery County is one of the fastest-growing counties in Texas. Families move there for the schools. 41 Black students at Montgomery Junior High passing at 37% while the school overall passes at 74%. What Black families are arriving to find is not what was advertised.

14. Crockett Middle — Amarillo ISD Black pass rate: 45% | School average: 82% | Gap: 37 points | Black students: 49

49 Black students in Amarillo passing at 45% in a school that overall passes at 82%. West Texas is not often part of the equity conversation in Texas education. The data says it should be.

15. McCallum H S — Austin ISD Black pass rate: 48% | School average: 85% | Gap: 37 points | Black students: 65

Austin ISD appears for the second time. Kealing Middle at number one. McCallum High School here. The gap follows Black students from middle school to high school in the same district, in the same city, under the same leadership. That is not a school problem. That is a system that is not designed to serve Black children, regardless of what the system says about itself.

16. Lamar Middle — Austin ISD Black pass rate: 48% | School average: 85% | Gap: 37 points | Black students: 27

Three Austin ISD schools in the top 16 on this list. The middle school years in Austin ISD are where Black children fall furthest behind — and the data shows they never fully recover by the time they reach high school.

17. Northwood Elementary — North East ISD Black pass rate: 44% | School average: 80% | Gap: 36 points | Black students: 27

North East ISD covers the northeast suburbs of San Antonio. 27 Black students at Northwood Elementary passing at 44% against an 80% school average. San Antonio is a majority-minority city. The inequity in its school districts does not get the same attention as Houston or Dallas. The data does not care about attention.

18. William Lipscomb Elementary — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 41% | School average: 77% | Gap: 36 points | Black students: 27

Dallas ISD is a district that appears on both the best and worst lists. At Lipscomb Elementary, 27 Black students pass at 41% while the school overall passes at 77%. What a district believes about Black children shows up differently on different campuses. This campus is showing one version of that belief.

19. White Rock Elementary — Richardson ISD Black pass rate: 51% | School average: 87% | Gap: 36 points | Black students: 102

Richardson ISD appears for the second time. 102 Black students at White Rock Elementary passing at 51% while the school overall passes at 87%. Richardson ISD has now produced two of the worst gaps in the state — Moss Haven at number two and White Rock here. That is a district with a documented pattern, not two isolated incidents.

20. Meadow Wood Elementary — Spring Branch ISD Black pass rate: 42% | School average: 78% | Gap: 36 points | Black students: 38

Spring Branch ISD serves the west Houston suburbs. 38 Black students at Meadow Wood Elementary passing at 42%. The Houston metro contains some of the best and worst outcomes for Black students in Texas. The difference between those outcomes is not geography. It is what the adults in each building have decided to do.

21. Redwater Intermediate — Redwater ISD Black pass rate: 46% | School average: 81% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 28

Redwater is a small town in Bowie County in far Northeast Texas, near the Arkansas border. 28 Black students. A 35-point gap. Small towns produce small numbers, but the percentage tells the same story as every large district on this list.

22. Pebble Creek Elementary — College Station ISD Black pass rate: 46% | School average: 81% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 48

College Station ISD appears for the third time. Elementary school, middle school, and now another elementary. The gap in College Station ISD is not grade-level specific. It is present wherever Black children are enrolled.

23. Borchardt Elementary — Frisco ISD Black pass rate: 58% | School average: 93% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 26

Frisco ISD appears for the third time. 58% of Black students passing in a school that overall passes at 93%. Borchardt Elementary is by most measures an exceptional school. For Black children, it is not.

24. Kay Granger Elementary — Northwest ISD Black pass rate: 52% | School average: 87% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 25

Kay Granger Elementary is named for the Texas congresswoman who represented the Fort Worth area for decades. 25 Black students pass at 52% while the school overall passes at 87%. The school’s name is a reminder that the institutions of public life in Texas were built by people who did not always have Black children in mind.

25. Hubbard H S — Hubbard ISD Black pass rate: 43% | School average: 78% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 28

Hubbard is a town of about 1,500 people in Hill County south of Waco. 28 Black students at Hubbard High School passing at 43%. Small districts in rural Texas are not exempt from accountability. The children inside them are not exempt from deserving better.

26. Van Vleck H S — Van Vleck ISD Black pass rate: 47% | School average: 82% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 57

Van Vleck is a small community in Matagorda County near Bay City. 57 Black students passing at 47%. Nearly half of Black students at this high school are not meeting grade level while the school overall passes at 82%.

27. Ouida Springer Elementary — Rockwall ISD Black pass rate: 41% | School average: 76% | Gap: 35 points | Black students: 27

Rockwall County is one of the fastest-growing counties in Texas, drawing families from Dallas who want smaller-town schools with strong reputations. 27 Black students at Ouida Springer passing at 41%. The reputation being built in Rockwall is not being built on Black children’s success.

28. Steubing Ranch Elementary — North East ISD Black pass rate: 48% | School average: 82% | Gap: 34 points | Black students: 40

North East ISD appears for the second time. Two schools, two entries. 40 Black students at Steubing Ranch Elementary passing at 48% against an 82% school average. The pattern in North East ISD is consistent.

29. Pecan Trail Intermediate — College Station ISD Black pass rate: 53% | School average: 87% | Gap: 34 points | Black students: 72

College Station ISD appears for the fourth time. Four schools. Four entries. Elementary, intermediate, and middle school all represented. The gap in College Station ISD follows Black children at every grade level. A university town with a research university studying child development, educational equity, and cognitive science cannot plausibly claim it does not know how to close this gap. It has chosen not to.

30. Yoakum H S — Yoakum ISD Black pass rate: 50% | School average: 84% | Gap: 34 points | Black students: 34

Yoakum is a South Texas town of about 6,000 people. 34 Black students at Yoakum High School passing at 50% in a school that overall passes at 84%. Half of Black students at this high school are not grade-level ready. The town is small enough that everyone knows everyone. The adults responsible for this outcome know the children it belongs to.

31. Fairmont Elementary — Deer Park ISD Black pass rate: 50% | School average: 84% | Gap: 34 points | Black students: 32

Deer Park ISD sits in the industrial corridor east of Houston. 32 Black students passing at 50% at Fairmont Elementary. This is a community shaped by the petrochemical industry — a community that has produced enormous wealth. Some of that wealth funds these schools. It is not reaching Black children.

32. Azle H S — Azle ISD Black pass rate: 40% | School average: 74% | Gap: 34 points | Black students: 25

Azle is a city on the western edge of the Fort Worth metro. 25 Black students at Azle High School passing at 40% while the school overall passes at 74%. The Fort Worth suburbs are growing rapidly. The question of whether Black families can trust those growing communities with their children’s education is one the data is answering.

33. Sonntag Elementary — Frisco ISD Black pass rate: 49% | School average: 82% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 95

Frisco ISD appears for the fourth and final time. 95 Black students. A 33-point gap. Four schools, hundreds of Black children, consistent outcomes that the district’s overall reputation conceals entirely. Frisco ISD is one of the most celebrated school districts in Texas. This is what that celebration has been built on top of.

34. Reuben Johnson Elementary — McKinney ISD Black pass rate: 41% | School average: 74% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 27

McKinney ISD serves one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. 27 Black students at Reuben Johnson Elementary passing at 41%. Growth does not automatically produce equity. McKinney’s data proves it.

35. Brownsboro H S — Brownsboro ISD Black pass rate: 45% | School average: 78% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 33

Brownsboro is a small city east of Tyler in Henderson County. 33 Black students at Brownsboro High School passing at 45% against a 78% school average. East Texas counties like Henderson have histories that shape present-day school culture in ways the aggregate data obscures. The disaggregated data does not.

36. Little Cypress-Mauriceville H S — Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD Black pass rate: 43% | School average: 76% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 47

Little Cypress-Mauriceville is a community on the outskirts of Orange in Southeast Texas near the Louisiana border. 47 Black students passing at 43%. Southeast Texas has a significant Black population and a history of racial segregation in its schools that legally ended decades ago. The data suggests the educational separation did not fully end with the law.

37. Onalaska Elementary — Onalaska ISD Black pass rate: 48% | School average: 81% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 27

Onalaska is a small community on Lake Livingston in Polk County. 27 Black students at Onalaska Elementary passing at 48%. Small districts in rural Texas are not small problems. They are the same problem at a scale that makes it easier to ignore.

38. Davis Elementary — Austin ISD Black pass rate: 41% | School average: 74% | Gap: 33 points | Black students: 44

Austin ISD appears for the fourth time. Davis Elementary brings the total to four campuses on this list — middle schools and an elementary school — all showing consistent 30-plus point gaps for Black students. The pattern in Austin ISD begins in elementary school. It does not resolve at middle school or high school. It compounds.

39. J K Hileman Elementary — Queen City ISD Black pass rate: 46% | School average: 78% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 26

Queen City is a small town in Cass County in far Northeast Texas. 26 Black students passing at 46%. Cass County is one of the counties in Texas with the longest history of racial violence and exclusion. The school data in 2025 carries that history forward in a form that is legal, invisible to most, and devastating to the children living inside it.

40. Anahuac Elementary — Anahuac ISD Black pass rate: 38% | School average: 70% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 29

Anahuac is the seat of Chambers County on Galveston Bay. 29 Black students at Anahuac Elementary passing at 38% in a school where 70% of students overall pass. This school barely meets the 70% threshold to appear on this list — and it still has a 32-point gap for Black students. The floor and the ceiling are both low here.

41. Smith Elementary — Frisco ISD Black pass rate: 54% | School average: 86% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 52

The fourth Frisco ISD school and the final appearance. Together, Frisco ISD’s four entries on this list represent hundreds of Black students across elementary and middle school. The gap is not concentrated in one school or one grade level. It is the experience of being a Black child in Frisco ISD.

42. Hightower Elementary — Plano ISD Black pass rate: 60% | School average: 92% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 62

Plano ISD. One of the most resourced school districts in the state. 62 Black students at Hightower Elementary passing at 60% while the school overall passes at 92%. When a school passes at 92% overall and 60% for Black students, that school has not solved education. It has solved it for some children and accepted an outcome for Black children that it would never accept for anyone else.

43. Watauga Elementary — Birdville ISD Black pass rate: 42% | School average: 74% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 31

Birdville ISD covers the northeast Fort Worth suburbs. 31 Black students at Watauga Elementary passing at 42%. Fort Worth is a city that has been slower to attract the national education equity conversation than Austin or Houston. The data says the conversation is overdue.

44. Alice Carlson Applied Learning Center — Fort Worth ISD Black pass rate: 53% | School average: 85% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 30

An applied learning school inside Fort Worth ISD where 30 Black students pass at 53% against an 85% school average. Fort Worth ISD also has schools that appear on the best list. The distance between those schools and this one is not measured in miles. It is measured in decisions.

45. Murchison Middle — Austin ISD Black pass rate: 49% | School average: 81% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 130

130 Black students. Austin ISD’s fourth and final entry on this list. Kealing at the top with 54 points. Murchison here with 32. McCallum High School. Davis Elementary. Four schools across four grade levels. This is what a district looks like when the gap is baked into the culture rather than treated as a crisis.

46. Bar W Elementary — Liberty Hill ISD Black pass rate: 55% | School average: 87% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 31

Liberty Hill is a fast-growing community north of Austin in Williamson County. 31 Black students at Bar W Elementary passing at 55% against an 87% school average. The communities building new schools fastest in Texas are not always building equity into the foundation.

47. Cedar Park Middle — Leander ISD Black pass rate: 59% | School average: 91% | Gap: 32 points | Black students: 29

Leander ISD is another high-growth district in Williamson County north of Austin. 29 Black students at Cedar Park Middle passing at 59% while the school overall passes at 91%. The Austin suburb corridor — Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock — is producing consistent gaps for Black students that rarely get named publicly.

48. Thousand Oaks Elementary — North East ISD Black pass rate: 39% | School average: 70% | Gap: 31 points | Black students: 31

North East ISD appears for the third time. Three campuses, three entries on this list. 31 Black students at Thousand Oaks Elementary passing at 39% in a school that barely passes the 70% threshold. North East ISD has a pattern. It deserves the same scrutiny as College Station and Austin.

49. Sweeny H S — Sweeny ISD Black pass rate: 43% | School average: 74% | Gap: 31 points | Black students: 40

Sweeny is a small community in Brazoria County south of Houston. 40 Black students at Sweeny High School passing at 43%. The Gulf Coast corridor between Houston and Corpus Christi has a significant Black population whose education outcomes rarely generate headlines. The data says they should.

50. Creek View Elementary — College Station ISD Black pass rate: 46% | School average: 77% | Gap: 31 points | Black students: 26

College Station ISD closes this list the same way it ran through it. Four schools. Four entries. Elementary school to intermediate to middle and back to elementary. A university town with every resource, every credential, and every reason to produce a different result — and a documented, consistent, multi-grade-level pattern of leaving Black children behind. The university studies educational equity. The school district produces the gap.

The districts that keep appearing

Some districts appear on this list once. Others appear again and again. That distinction matters more than any individual school entry.

A single school with a large gap can be explained in many ways — a difficult year, a teacher transition, an unusual cohort. Those explanations are often wrong, but they are available. When a district appears four times on a list of the worst gaps in Texas, the explanations run out. What remains is a pattern. And a pattern is a policy, even when nobody has written it down.

Austin ISD appears four times — Kealing Middle, McCallum High School, Lamar Middle, Murchison Middle, and Davis Elementary. The gap starts in elementary school and follows Black children through middle school and into high school. Austin is a city that uses the word equity constantly. The data measures what equity actually produces, not what it promises.

Frisco ISD appears four times — Hosp, Allen, Borchardt, Sonntag, Smith. The gaps range from 32 to 42 points. Frisco ISD has among the highest property values and best-funded schools in Texas. Its overall scores are excellent. Its Black student outcomes are not. There is no resource explanation for this. There is only a priorities explanation.

College Station ISD appears four times — A&M Consolidated Middle, Pebble Creek Elementary, Pecan Trail Intermediate, Creek View Elementary. From elementary school through middle school, Black students in College Station ISD fall behind at every level. Texas A&M University sits in this city. The university’s education researchers study exactly this problem. The school district next door produces exactly this problem.

Richardson ISD appears twice — Moss Haven Elementary at number two on the entire list, and White Rock Elementary at number 19. Richardson ISD has two of the worst individual campus gaps in the state. That is not a coincidence. That is a district.

North East ISD appears three times. Three San Antonio-area campuses with consistent 31 to 36-point gaps.

Why this happens in high-performing schools

The gap in high-performing schools is not random. It is produced — not always consciously, not always with malicious intent, but produced nonetheless by decisions that accumulate into outcomes.

Advanced course access is tracked by race whether schools acknowledge it or not. In schools with high overall pass rates, the students driving those numbers are disproportionately white and Asian. Black students are underrepresented in gifted programs, pre-AP courses, and honors tracks at rates that are documented and consistent. When a school’s overall pass rate is driven by a population that Black students are not equally part of, the gap in the data is not a mystery. It is a measurement of who the advanced instruction was for.

Discipline disparities steal instructional time. Black students are suspended, sent to the office, and removed from classrooms at higher rates than any other group — in low-income districts and in wealthy ones, in cities and in suburbs. Every hour a child spends outside the classroom is an hour without instruction. The cumulative effect of disproportionate discipline over a school year is significant. Over twelve years, it is enormous. The gap does not appear in one test. It accumulates through thousands of small exclusions.

Belonging is not a soft skill. It is a prerequisite for learning. In schools where Black students are a small minority, research consistently shows lower academic engagement, lower sense of belonging, and lower outcomes — unless the school actively builds an environment where Black students are seen, represented, and valued. Most schools on this list have not done that work. The data shows it.

Low expectations compound. When a teacher looks at a Black child and unconsciously lowers the bar — assigns easier work, skips the harder question, accepts the incomplete answer — that child learns less. When that happens in first grade, and second grade, and third grade, by middle school the gap is not a gap anymore. It is a canyon. The tragedy is that most of this does not happen because anyone is cruel. It happens because the system was never designed to interrupt it.

The 50 schools on the best list prove that none of this is inevitable. Cedar Hill ISD eliminated the gap entirely. Harmony Public Schools is producing 99% and 100% pass rates for Black students on campus after campus. The gap is not destiny. It is a choice — made slowly, invisibly, and consistently — about which children deserve the most of what a school has to offer.

What the data demands

This list is not an ending. It is a beginning.

Every district named here has access to this data. Every principal on this list can look up their own school’s numbers. The gap is not new information to the people responsible for closing it. What has been missing is the public accountability that comes from naming it.

If your child attends a school on this list — or if the tool shows a significant gap at your child’s school — you have the right to ask for answers. Not reassurances. Not strategies. Answers.

What is the Black student pass rate at this school, and how has it changed over the last three years?

What percentage of Black students are enrolled in gifted, advanced, and honors courses compared to their share of the student population?

What does the discipline data show for Black students, and what has the district done to address it?

What specific interventions exist for Black students who are performing below grade level, and how are those interventions different from what is offered to other students?

What is the plan to close the gap, and what does accountability look like if the plan does not produce results?

The data is public. These questions are yours to ask. And the parents who ask them — in school board meetings, in principal conferences, in the comment sections of district newsletters — are the ones who make it harder for the gap to stay invisible.

A final word

Behind every number on this list is a child.

A child who went to school that morning. Who sat in a classroom. Who was taught by adults who, in many cases, genuinely care about children. And who is still not passing grade-level tests at the same rate as the child sitting next to them.

That child deserves the same education. Not a separate-but-equal version of it. Not a version filtered through lower expectations or fewer opportunities or a discipline policy that removes them from the room where learning happens. The same education.

These 50 schools are being named because the gap they are producing has been allowed to exist without consequence for too long. The children inside these schools do not have the luxury of waiting for the adults to decide the gap matters.

It already does.

Data source: Texas Education Agency TAPR 2024–25. Metric: Approaches Grade Level and above on STAAR. Minimum 25 Black students tested. Schools with an overall passing rate of 70% or higher. Ranked by gap between school average and Black student pass rate. Tool available at texastea.hbcugrad.org.

There is a number that most Black families in Texas never see.

Not the school’s overall rating. Not the district average. Not the grade on the marquee out front. The number that tells you exactly how Black children are performing at a specific school, compared to every other group in that building.

When you see that number — really see it — one of two things happens.

You feel the weight of what your child’s school is not doing.

Or you feel something rarer. You feel what’s possible.

This article is about what’s possible.

In Texas, only 23% of schools earn an A for Black students. The gap between the best and worst schools for Black children in the state is 100 points. Most families spend years inside a school system without ever knowing where their child’s school falls on that spectrum. They trust the process. They show up to open house. They sign the folders that come home every Monday.

They deserve more than that.

Scattered across Texas, in suburbs and small cities and districts you’ve probably never heard of, there are schools where Black students are passing at 90, 95, even 100%. Not as an exception. As the norm. These are schools where the adults decided that what was happening everywhere else wasn’t acceptable for their students. And then they built something different.

This is a list of 50 of those schools. They were identified using 2024–25 TEA TAPR data, the most recent available, looking specifically at schools where at least 50 Black students are tested, where Black students are passing at 80% or higher, and where Black students are performing at or above the school average.

These aren’t schools that happen to have a few Black students doing well in the margins. These are schools where Black excellence is the standard.

They deserve to be named.

What the data measures

Every number in this list comes from the Texas Education Agency’s 2024–25 TAPR data. The metric is Approaches Grade Level or above on the STAAR test — the floor for grade-level readiness in Texas. A school that earns 100% means every Black student tested passed at grade level or above.

The gap shows the difference between Black student performance and the school’s overall average. A negative number means Black students are outperforming the school average. That is not common in Texas. On this list, it is the rule.

The schools

1. Grand Prairie Collegiate Institute — Grand Prairie ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 95% | Black students: 63

Every single Black student passed. And they did it 5 points above the school average. This is where the list begins because this is what the ceiling looks like when nobody puts one on Black children.

2. Cedar Hill Collegiate H S — Cedar Hill ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 97% | Black students: 218

218 Black students. Every one of them passed. Cedar Hill ISD will appear on this list again — which means this is not one exceptional teacher or one inspired principal. This is a district that made a decision about what Black children deserve and built a system around that decision.

3. George B Dealey Montessori Academy — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 98% | Black students: 51

A Montessori school inside Dallas ISD where every Black student tested passed. The model is different. The outcome is the same.

4. James M Steele Early College H S — Northwest ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 55

Early college high schools appear on this list more than any other school type. The expectation of college readiness, applied to every student equally, produces results that look like this.

5. Harmony Science Academy-Sugar Land — Harmony Public Schools Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 92

Harmony Public Schools will appear on this list more times than any other network in Texas. 92 Black students in Sugar Land passing at 100%. Across dozens of campuses from Houston to Katy to Dallas to El Paso, Harmony is producing outcomes for Black students that most Texas districts have stopped believing are achievable. They are wrong.

6. T H Rogers School — Houston ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 75

A Houston ISD magnet school where 75 Black students passed at 100%. Inside the same district where some schools show 30 and 40-point gaps, T H Rogers shows what Houston ISD is capable of when the conditions are right.

7. Tyler ISD Early College H S — Tyler ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 100

100 Black students. 100% passing. In Tyler, Texas.

8. Arlington Collegiate H S — Arlington ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 100

Another 100 Black students passing at 100%. The number is not a coincidence — it is a result of a school built around the belief that every child can meet a high standard.

9. iUniversity Prep — Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students: 58

A virtual school in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD where 58 Black students passed at 100%. The building does not make the school. The expectation does.

10. School of Health Professions — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 77

Every student in this building passed. Every Black student passed. The gap is zero because there is no gap. This is what parity looks like.

11. Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 90

A law-focused magnet school in Dallas where 90 Black students passed at 100%. The pipeline from this school to college, to law school, to leadership — that pipeline is being built one student at a time.

12. School for the Highly Gifted — Grand Prairie ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 72

Gifted programs in Texas are often places where Black students are underrepresented. This school is the exception — and the proof that inclusion and excellence are not in conflict.

13. Kerr H S — Alief ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 165

165 Black students. Every one of them passed. Alief ISD serves one of the most diverse communities in the Houston metro. Kerr High School is what a school looks like when diversity is not just tolerated but served.

14. Alief Early College H S — Alief ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 118

Alief ISD appears twice on this list. Two campuses, two different school types, the same result for Black students. Alief is not an accident either.

15. Carnegie Vanguard H S — Houston ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 55

One of Houston ISD’s most competitive magnet schools. 55 Black students at 100%. The competitive admissions process raises questions about access — but the outcome is undeniable.

16. Challenge Early College H S — Houston ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 57

A second Houston ISD school on this list. Early college programs keep appearing because the model works. The message to Black students — you belong in college, starting now — changes what students believe about themselves.

17. Carver Center — Midland ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 83

83 Black students in Midland, Texas passing at 100%. Midland is an oil town, not a city known for educational equity. The data doesn’t care about reputation.

18. Mansfield Frontier STEM Academy — Mansfield ISD Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students: 101

A STEM academy in Mansfield where 101 Black students passed at 100%. STEM schools and Black excellence appear together on this list repeatedly. The narrative that Black students don’t excel in STEM is not supported by the data.

19. Harmony Science Academy-Houston — Harmony Public Schools Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 78% | Black students: 69

Black students are passing at a rate 21 points higher than the school average. Read that again. The school overall passes at 78%. Black students pass at 99%. In this building, Black students are not catching up. Everyone else is.

20. Edward Roberson Middle — Spring ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 97% | Black students: 221

221 Black middle school students passing at 99%. The statewide middle school pass rate for Black students is 63%. This school is not operating in the same reality as the rest of Texas. It has built something different and it works.

21. Judson Early College Academy — Judson ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students: 90

22. Young Women’s Leadership Academy — Aldine ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students: 87

A school built specifically for young women in Aldine ISD, where 87 Black girls are passing at 99%. The investment in Black girls specifically produces results. This school is proof.

23. Kinder H S for Performing and Visual Arts — Houston ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students: 182

182 Black students in a performing arts high school passing at 99%. This school exists at the intersection of two things that some people still believe don’t belong together — art and academic excellence. The data disagrees.

24. Viridian Elementary — Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students: 70

25. BASIS San Antonio-Shavano Campus — BASIS Texas Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 99% | Black students: 111

111 Black students at a rigorous BASIS campus in San Antonio passing at 99%. High expectations applied equally produce equal outcomes. The data keeps saying this.

26. Stafford STEM Magnet Academy — Stafford MSD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 99% | Black students: 103

27. TCCSE Early College H S at Timberview — Mansfield ISD Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 99% | Black students: 67

Mansfield ISD appears twice on this list. Two different schools, two different models, the same outcome for Black students. Mansfield is worth watching.

28. R V Groves Elementary — Wylie ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 87% | Black students: 84

An elementary school in Wylie — a suburb of Dallas that most people outside the metroplex have never heard of — where 84 Black students are passing at 98% and outperforming the school average by 11 points. The schools getting it right are not always in the places you’d expect. That is the whole point of this list.

29. Blanson CTE H S — Aldine ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 95% | Black students: 145

145 Black students at a career and technical high school in Aldine ISD passing at 98%. Aldine ISD appears twice on this list. The pattern holds.

30. Terrell Elementary — Lamar CISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 96% | Black students: 100

100 Black elementary students passing at 98% in Fort Bend County. The foundation being built here matters. These children will arrive at middle school ready.

31. Arlington College and Career H S — Arlington ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 96% | Black students: 65

32. SST Sugar Land College Prep H S — School of Science and Technology Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 97% | Black students: 130

130 Black students at a college prep school in Sugar Land passing at 98%. The Sugar Land area shows up repeatedly as a place where Black students are thriving. Something about this community and its schools is working.

33. Kimberlin Academy for Excellence — Garland ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 97% | Black students: 52

34. Carl Wunsche Sr H S — Spring ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 97% | Black students: 122

Spring ISD appears twice on this list — Carl Wunsche and Edward Roberson Middle at #20. 122 Black high school students passing at 98%. Spring ISD is doing something right and it is showing up at multiple grade levels.

35. Henry W Longfellow Career Exploration Academy — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 84

36. Trinity Heights Gifted and Talented School — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 83

A gifted and talented school in Dallas where 83 Black students are at exact parity with the school average. Gifted programs in Texas too often exclude Black children. This school is the counter-argument.

37. Rise Academy — Rise Academy Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 62

38. Talkington School for Young Women Leaders — Lubbock ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 89

Lubbock is not a city people point to when they talk about educational equity for Black students. 89 Black young women passing at 98% says something different about what Lubbock is capable of when it decides to invest.

39. Young Women’s Leadership Academy — Midland ISD Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 97

Schools for young women appear three times on this list — Aldine, Lubbock, and Midland. The intentional investment in Black girls is producing some of the strongest outcomes in the state.

40. Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts — Fort Worth Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students: 51

A fine arts school in Fort Worth where Black students and the school average are identical. Zero gap. The arts are not a distraction from academic achievement. They are a path to it.

41. Dr Kirk Lewis Career and Technical H S — Pasadena ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 91% | Black students: 62

Black students are outperforming the school average by 6 points at a career and technical high school in Pasadena. The idea that CTE schools are a lesser track is not supported here. This is rigorous work producing exceptional outcomes.

42. Mark Twain School for the Talented and Gifted — Dallas ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 96% | Black students: 100

100 Black students at a gifted program in Dallas passing at 97%. Dallas ISD has some of the worst gaps in the state and some of the best outcomes. The district contains multitudes. This school is the best of it.

43. Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy — Grand Prairie ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 96% | Black students: 101

Grand Prairie ISD appears three times on this list. Three campuses. Three different school types. The same commitment to Black student outcomes running through all of them.

44. Killeen ISD Early College H S — Killeen ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 97% | Black students: 72

Killeen ISD serves a large military-connected population. 72 Black students passing at 97% in an early college program. The military community and HBCUs have a long connection. The college-going expectation here is not abstract.

45. Cedar Hill Collegiate Academy — Cedar Hill ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 97% | Black students: 221

Cedar Hill ISD appears for the third time. 221 Black students. 97% passing. Zero gap. Three campuses on this list means this is not a program. It is a culture. Cedar Hill ISD has built a culture around Black student excellence and the results are visible across an entire district.

46. Houston Academy for International Studies — Houston ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 97% | Black students: 164

164 Black students in an international studies program in Houston passing at 97%. The world is available to these children. The data says they are ready for it.

47. Sam Houston Elementary — Marshall ISD Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 97% | Black students: 61

An elementary school in Marshall, in deep East Texas, where 61 Black students are at exact parity with the school average. Marshall is a small city with a significant Black community. This school is serving that community well.

48. KIPP Connect Houston Primary — KIPP Texas Public Schools Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 85% | Black students: 57

Black students outperforming the school average by 11 points at a KIPP elementary school in Houston. KIPP Texas appears on this list across multiple Houston campuses. The network’s model — extended school days, high expectations, intensive teacher coaching — is producing results for Black students.

49. Hornedo Middle — El Paso ISD Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 87% | Black students: 76

A middle school in El Paso where 76 Black students pass at 96% — 9 points above the school average. El Paso ISD appears here as a reminder that the best outcomes for Black students are not confined to the major metros.

50. Harmony School of Innovation-Houston — Harmony Public Schools Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 88% | Black students: 97

Harmony closes this list the same way it appeared throughout it — with Black students outperforming the school average. 97 Black students in Houston passing at 96%, 8 points above the school average. Harmony Public Schools is the most consistent network on this list, and it is not close.

What these schools have in common

Spend enough time with this list and the patterns become impossible to ignore.

Early college programs dominate. Cedar Hill, Arlington, Tyler, Judson, Killeen, Alief, Houston — early college programs appear more than any other school type. The reason is not mysterious. When a school tells a Black child from the day they arrive that college is not a possibility but an expectation, and then organizes the entire academic program around that expectation, the child rises to meet it. High expectations are not just motivational language. They change what students attempt, what teachers assign, and what the school treats as acceptable. The early college model applies that pressure equally to every student, and the Black student outcomes show it.

Harmony Public Schools is in a category of its own. No other network in Texas appears on this list as consistently or with as many students. Across Houston, Sugar Land, Katy, Dallas, and beyond, Harmony is producing Black student pass rates in the 94% to 100% range on campus after campus. The network’s STEM focus creates an environment where rigor is the default rather than the exception. Black students in Harmony schools are not being placed in slower tracks or lower expectations — they are being held to the same standard as every other student. And they are meeting it.

Cedar Hill ISD is the most important district on this list. Three campuses. Hundreds of Black students. Consistent outcomes at the 97% to 100% level. Cedar Hill is not a wealthy district. It is not a predominantly white district. It serves a majority-minority community in southwest DFW where Black students make up a significant share of enrollment. The conditions that are often cited as explanations for low Black student performance exist in Cedar Hill. The low outcomes do not. That is not luck. That is leadership, culture, and a district-wide commitment to Black student success that shows up in the data at every grade level, on every campus, year after year.

Schools for young women are producing some of the strongest outcomes in the state. The Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Aldine, the Talkington School for Young Women Leaders in Lubbock, and the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Midland all appear on this list with Black student pass rates of 97% to 99%. The intentional investment in Black girls — schools designed specifically with their success in mind — produces results that most co-ed schools cannot match. That is a data point worth sitting with.

The school type does not determine the outcome. Montessori schools, STEM academies, fine arts programs, career and technical schools, virtual schools, gifted programs, law magnets, performing arts schools — every model is represented on this list. What is not represented is a single model that works and a single model that doesn’t. The thread is not what kind of school it is. The thread is what kind of adults are in the building and what they believe about the children in front of them.

That belief — that Black children can meet any standard placed in front of them when the environment is built to support them — is what every school on this list has in common.

What parents can do

Texas has open enrollment options that allow families to apply to schools outside their assigned attendance zone. The process varies by district, but the option exists in most major districts. Early college high schools often have application processes that begin in eighth grade.

Start at texastea.hbcugrad.org. Search your city, your district, or your zip code. See exactly where your child’s school stands. Then look up the schools on this list that are closest to you. The gap between where your child is and where they could be is not fixed. These 50 schools are proof.

A final word

Every child on this list is someone’s son. Someone’s daughter. A child whose parent dropped them off at the curb that morning with the same love and the same hope that every Black parent carries.

The difference is what happened after the door closed.

In these 50 schools, what happened is that Black children were taught, challenged, seen, and held to a standard that assumed they were capable of excellence. And they were.

That is not a miracle. It is a choice. And every school in Texas that is not on this list has the same choice to make.

Share this with every Black parent you know. The data was always public. Now it is in the right hands.

Data source: Texas Education Agency TAPR 2024–25. Metric: Approaches Grade Level and above on STAAR. Minimum 50 Black students tested. Schools where Black students pass at 80% or higher and at or above the school average. Tool available at texastea.hbcugrad.org.

I set out to answer a question that every Black parent in Texas deserves an honest answer to. Is the school my child attends actually serving them?

Not serving kids in general. Not serving the district average. Serving Black children specifically.

When I started pulling the data from the Texas Education Agency, I wasn’t prepared for what I found. The gap between the best and worst schools for Black students in Texas is 100 points. One hundred points. That means a Black child at the wrong school is passing grade-level tests at a rate 100 points lower than a Black child at the right school. Same state. Same tests. Same children. Different outcomes entirely.

Most families have no idea where their child’s school falls on that spectrum. The data is public. It’s been public the whole time. But it’s buried in spreadsheets that were never designed for a parent sitting at a kitchen table trying to make the best decision for their child.

So I built something that was.

texastea.hbcugrad.org lets any Black family in Texas look up any school in the state and see exactly how Black students are performing compared to every other group, using the most recent TEA data available. It takes 30 seconds. It’s free. And it will tell you something your child’s school probably never will.

That’s why The Light Bearer exists.

The tool was the beginning. This publication is what comes next. Data-driven stories about what’s really happening to Black students across Texas and eventually across the country. The schools that are getting it right. The ones that aren’t. The districts hiding behind good overall numbers while Black children fall further behind every year.

No fluff. Just the truth, with receipts.

If you’re a Black parent, this is for you. If you’re an educator who knows something is wrong and wants the data to prove it, this is for you. If you’re anyone who believes that where a child is born should not determine whether they learn to read, this is for you.

Rashad
The Light Bearer