Three HISD schools sweep top spots in school rankings

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- It's the list every parent will want to check out -- the ranking of hundreds of schools in the Houston area. There aren't too many surprises with this year's ranking, and once again, HISD is at the top of the lists.

Starting with the top three elementary schools, they are TH Rogers, Lyons Elementary and River Oaks Elementary.

TH Rogers, which serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade, is also the top middle school. It's followed by Project Chrysalis Middle School and Energized for Excellence Middle School.

And topping the high schools is HISD's Debakey High School for Health Professions, followed by Carnegie Vanguard High School and then Eastwood Academy.

Nearly 2,000 were researched and ranked in four tiers. Tier 1 ranked high; Tiers 2 and 3 ranked in the middles, and Tier 4 ranked low. The organization that rated the schools -- Children at Risk -- says many of the lowest-ranked schools desperately need improvement and parents should be aware of how to help their students.

"We started with the premise, if I were a parent and I wanted to know, where would I want my kid to go to school," Children at Risk President Dr. Robert Sanborn said.

With that, non-profit organization Children At Risk looked at hundreds of elementary middle and high schools in the greater Houston area, considering things like...

"How kids are doing on SAT, ACT, how many kids are truly graduating from those high schools," Sanborn said.

The results highlighted the highest-ranking schools and districts. Many of them are magnet and accelerated learning programs like Debakey High School for Health Professions, the No. 1-ranked high school for the past three years.

"We have a great curriculum that we have worked on for many years to improve it, to tweak it, to where it is a program that is really good for the kids," said the school's principal, Agnes Perry-Bell.

But what about the schools that fall at the very bottom of the list? What should parents do?

"One of the interesting things about the ranking is that they have really become good tools for parents. The parents can see what schools are working for my kids and which schools should I be looking to change from," Sanborn said.

Dr. Sanborn encourages parents to be proactive, go view this list and -- if possible -- change schools, place your child in a higher-performing school. He says some districts allow that if there is actually a space available. Sanborn says the bottom line is, every child deserves a good education.

Children at Risk says some of HISD's Apollo 20 schools have undergone dramatic improvements.

See the entire list here

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