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.
225 Texas schools meet that standard. This article names the top 50.
They were identified using 2024–25 TEA TAPR data, looking specifically at schools where at least 50 Black students were tested, where Black students pass at 80% or higher across all subjects, and where Black students perform at or above the school’s overall average.
That last condition is the one that matters most. A school can post strong numbers while Black students trail badly behind — we documented 50 of those in a separate piece. Every school on this list clears a harder bar: Black students are doing at least as well as everyone else in the building.
They deserve to be named.
What the data measures
Every number comes from the Texas Education Agency’s 2024–25 TAPR data. The metric is Approaches Grade Level or above on STAAR, across all subjects combined — not a single subject in isolation.
That distinction matters, and it’s what the correction above was about. A school can post an outstanding reading score while its math results lag. Using all-subjects data gives a fuller and more honest picture of what a student’s education actually looks like.
“Above school average” means Black students are outperforming the campus as a whole. On this list, that is the rule rather than the exception.
The 50 schools
1. Cedar Hill Collegiate H S — Cedar Hill ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 97% | Black students tested: 218 | +3 above school average Every Black student tested passed — 218 of them — and they did it three points above the school’s own average. Cedar Hill ISD is a majority-Black district in southwest Dallas County. This is what it looks like when a district builds for the students it actually serves.
2. Tyler ISD Early College H S — Tyler ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students tested: 100 | +1 above school average One hundred Black students. One hundred percent passing. In East Texas, in a city whose school desegregation case ran into the 1970s.
3. Arlington Collegiate H S — Arlington ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students tested: 100 | +1 above school average Another hundred students, another perfect rate. Early college high schools appear on this list more than any other model.
4. James M Steele Early College H S — Northwest ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 99% | Black students tested: 55 | +1 above school average A third early college in the top four. The pattern is not subtle.
5. Kerr H S — Alief ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 165 | even with school average 165 Black students passing at 100% — matching a school where everyone passes. Alief is one of the most diverse districts in the country.
6. Alief Early College H S — Alief ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 118 | even with school average Alief ISD twice in the top six. Two different campuses, two different models, the same result.
7. Mansfield Frontier STEM Academy — Mansfield ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 101 | even with school average A STEM academy where 101 Black students all passed. The idea that STEM is where Black students fall behind does not survive contact with this data.
8. Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 90 | even with school average Named for the federal judge who oversaw Dallas ISD’s desegregation for two decades. Ninety Black students. All passing.
9. Carver Center — Midland ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 83 | even with school average Named for George Washington Carver, in an oil town in West Texas that rarely appears in conversations about educational excellence.
10. School Of Health Professions — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 77 | even with school average Seventy-seven Black students on a path toward medicine, nursing, and public health. All of them passing.
11. School For The Highly Gifted — Grand Prairie ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 72 | even with school average Gifted programs are where Black students are most consistently underrepresented statewide. Not here.
12. Challenge Early College H S — Houston ISD
Black pass rate: 100% | School average: 100% | Black students tested: 57 | even with school average The fourth early college in the top twelve, in the state’s largest district.
13. Harmony Science Academy-Sugar Land — Harmony Public Schools
Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 213 | +1 above school average 213 Black students at 99%, above the school average. Harmony appears repeatedly on this list across multiple campuses.
14. Kinder H S For Performing And Visual Arts — Houston ISD
Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 182 | +1 above school average 182 Black students at one of the most competitive arts schools in the country — outperforming the building.
15. Judson Early College Academy — Judson ISD
Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 90 | +1 above school average Judson serves northeast San Antonio and a large military-connected population.
16. BASIS San Antonio Shavano Campus — BASIS Texas
Black pass rate: 99% | School average: 99% | Black students tested: 111 | even with school average 111 Black students matching a school average of 99%.
17. Harmony Science Academy-Houston — Harmony Public Schools
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 164 | +11 above school average Read that gap again. Black students pass at 98% while the school overall passes at 87%. Black students are not catching up here — they are carrying the building.
18. R V Groves Elementary — Wylie ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 84 | +11 above school average The second eleven-point advantage on this list. Wylie ISD, northeast of Dallas, is a district almost nobody writes about.
19. Blanson CTE H S — Aldine ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 95% | Black students tested: 145 | +3 above school average Career and technical education is often treated as the lesser track. 145 Black students at 98% says otherwise.
20. iUniversity Prep — Grapevine-Colleyville ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 96% | Black students tested: 148 | +2 above school average A fully online public school where 148 Black students pass at 98%.
21. Arlington College And Career H S — Arlington ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 96% | Black students tested: 65 | +2 above school average Arlington ISD’s second appearance.
22. George B Dealey Montessori Academy — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 97% | Black students tested: 131 | +1 above school average Montessori inside a large urban district, with 131 Black students above the school average.
23. SST Sugar Land College Prep H S — School Of Science And Technology
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 97% | Black students tested: 130 | +1 above school average 130 Black students at a college prep charter in Fort Bend County.
24. Carl Wunsche Sr H S — Spring ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 596 | even with school average 596 Black students. The largest school in the top twenty-five, and the number that should end any argument that this only works at small scale.
25. Young Women’s Leadership Academy — Midland ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 97 | even with school average A school built specifically for young women, in West Texas.
26. Talkington School For Young Women Leaders — Lubbock ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 89 | even with school average The second all-girls school on this list. Both at 98%.
27. Henry W Longfellow Career Exploration Academy — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 98% | School average: 98% | Black students tested: 84 | even with school average Dallas ISD’s fourth appearance in the top thirty.
28. Dr Kirk Lewis Career And Technical H S — Pasadena ISD
Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 91% | Black students tested: 62 | +6 above school average Six points above the school average at a CTE campus in the Houston area.
29. Kimberlin Academy For Excellence — Garland ISD
Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 96% | Black students tested: 125 | +1 above school average 125 Black students above the school average in a district serving northeast Dallas County.
30. Houston Academy For International Studies — Houston ISD
Black pass rate: 97% | School average: 97% | Black students tested: 164 | even with school average 164 Black students matching a 97% school average.
31. Hornedo Middle — El Paso ISD
Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 76 | +9 above school average Nine points above the school average, in a city where Black students are a small minority — which usually predicts worse outcomes, not better.
32. Randolph Elementary — Randolph Field ISD
Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 94% | Black students tested: 114 | +2 above school average A military-connected district near San Antonio.
33. Campbell Elementary — Katy ISD
Black pass rate: 96% | School average: 95% | Black students tested: 118 | +1 above school average 118 Black students in a fast-growing Houston suburb.
34. John A Dubiski Career H S — Grand Prairie ISD
Black pass rate: 95% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 167 | +8 above school average 167 Black students, eight points above the school average, at a career high school.
35. Mahaffey Elementary — Klein Isd
Black pass rate: 95% | School average: 89% | Black students tested: 101 | +6 above school average Six points above the school average in north Harris County.
36. BASIS San Antonio Primary North Central — BASIS Texas
Black pass rate: 95% | School average: 90% | Black students tested: 66 | +5 above school average BASIS Texas’s second appearance.
37. Young Women’s Leadership Academy — Aldine ISD
Black pass rate: 95% | School average: 95% | Black students tested: 202 | even with school average 202 Black girls at 95%. The third all-girls school on this list, and the largest.
38. Dallas Environmental Science Academy — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 95% | School average: 95% | Black students tested: 61 | even with school average Dallas ISD again — five campuses now.
39. Col John O Ensor Middle — Socorro ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 52 | +7 above school average Socorro, on the far edge of El Paso, with Black students seven points above the school average.
40. Watson Technology Center — Garland ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 88% | Black students tested: 138 | +6 above school average 138 Black students, six points above the building.
41. Harmony School Of Innovation - Katy — Harmony Public Schools
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 90% | Black students tested: 552 | +4 above school average 552 Black students, four points above the school average. Scale and performance together.
42. Robert G Cole Middle/High School — Ft Sam Houston ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 93% | Black students tested: 199 | +1 above school average A school on an active Army post in San Antonio.
43. Sherry And Paul Hamm Elementary — Rockwall ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 93% | Black students tested: 77 | +1 above school average Rockwall, northeast of Dallas.
44. Central Elementary — Dallas ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 93% | Black students tested: 67 | +1 above school average Dallas ISD’s sixth campus on this list.
45. Swenke Elementary — Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Black pass rate: 94% | School average: 94% | Black students tested: 70 | even with school average Cy-Fair is one of the largest districts in Texas.
46. SSG Manuel R Puentes — Socorro ISD
Black pass rate: 93% | School average: 84% | Black students tested: 136 | +9 above school average Socorro’s second appearance, with a nine-point advantage.
47. Coppell Classical Academy — Texas College Preparatory Academies
Black pass rate: 93% | School average: 87% | Black students tested: 61 | +6 above school average Six points above the school average.
48. SST The Woodlands — School Of Science And Technology
Black pass rate: 93% | School average: 88% | Black students tested: 120 | +5 above school average 120 Black students, five points above the building.
49. West Plains H S — Canyon Isd
Black pass rate: 93% | School average: 89% | Black students tested: 56 | +4 above school average In the Texas Panhandle, outside Amarillo.
50. Edward Roberson Middle — Spring ISD
Black pass rate: 93% | School average: 92% | Black students tested: 572 | +1 above school average 572 Black students — the second largest school on this list. Spring ISD appears twice, with Carl Wunsche at #24. Two campuses, over 1,100 Black students between them, both above their school averages.
What these schools have in common
Look at the list long enough and the patterns surface.
Early college and collegiate programs dominate the top. Four of the top twelve are early college high schools. When a school tells a Black student from day one that college is the expectation rather than a possibility, and organizes everything around that, the results follow.
Schools built for young women appear three times — Midland, Lubbock, and Aldine — all at 95% or higher. Aldine’s serves 202 Black girls.
Scale is not the obstacle it’s assumed to be. Carl Wunsche in Spring ISD serves 596 Black students at 98%. Edward Roberson Middle, same district, serves 572 at 93%. Harmony’s Katy campus serves 552 at 94%. Over 1,700 Black students across just those three schools.
Two schools show Black students outperforming their campus by eleven points — Harmony Science Academy-Houston and R V Groves Elementary in Wylie ISD. In those buildings, Black students aren’t catching up. They’re setting the pace.
Dallas ISD appears six times. Houston ISD, Arlington, Alief, Socorro, Garland, and Spring all appear more than once. These are not exclusively wealthy suburban districts. Several are large urban systems that appear in national coverage mainly as cautionary tales.
What to do with this
Look up your child’s school. Compare two numbers: the Black student pass rate, and the school’s overall average.
If Black students are at or above that average, the school has cleared a bar that most Texas schools do not.
If there’s a gap, that gap is not inevitable. Two hundred twenty-five schools in this state are proof.
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 bearinglight.org.