North Texas high schools make best of Texas schools list from U.S. News & World Report

Dalia Faheid
·3 min read
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One Fort Worth school made the list of top 50 public high schools in Texas, in rankings released last week by U.S. News & World Report.

The Young Women’s Leadership Academy at 1066 W Magnolia is ranked 23rd within Texas and 159th nationally. The public all girls’ school for grades 6-12 “offers girls a dynamic learning experience that encourages critical thinking, inspires confidence and nurtures both the intellectual and social development necessary for them to be successful in college, a career, and in life,” according to the school’s website.

Boasting an overall score of 99.1, the school ranked 15th in the state for college readiness, 23rd for college curriculum breadth and 43rd for state assessment performance. Of those enrolled at YWLA, 87% are minorities and 73% of students are economically disadvantaged. All YWLA students took at least one AP exam and 85% passed at least one. Students ranked highest on reading proficiency at 81%, followed by science at 78% then math at 24%.

Opened in 2010, Fort Worth ISD’s first single-gender school provides a college preparatory curriculum emphasizing math, science and technology as well as leadership skills. The school aims to help its 232 students grow through challenging coursework, field-based exploration and personalized counseling. YWLA offers career pathways in civil engineering and architecture, graphic design and visual arts. The first class graduated from YWLA in 2016.

Three Dallas high schools topped the list of best high schools in Texas: The School for the Talented and Gifted, the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School and the Science and Engineering Magnet School. The top 10 included one high school in Austin, one in San Antonio, three in Houston and five in Dallas.

U.S. News reviewed nearly 25,000 U.S. public high schools, with 17,680 making the national rankings. Out of 2,144 high schools in the state, 1,532 Texas schools made the rankings. The 1,085 districts in the state employ 117,850 full-time teachers.

The 1.75 million Texas high school students are expected to earn 22 credit hours to complete the high school foundation program, according to the Texas Education Agency. They can also choose to earn a higher number of credits for one of five endorsement areas: STEM, business and industry, public service, arts and humanities or multidisciplinary studies. STAAR end-of-course exams required for high school students include Algebra I, Biology, English I, English II and U.S. History, typically completed toward the end of the spring semester.

The World Languages Institute was rated the second best high school in Fort Worth out of the 29 in the district after YWLA, making it #51 in state rankings and #388 in national rankings. The school received a 100 on the college readiness index, which is based on the AP or IB participation rate.

Fort Worth’s Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences also made the top 100 list at #87 in Texas and third in the Fort Worth district. The public early college high school, founded in 2011, educates students who have expressed interest in biomedical-related careers. The Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts public charter school made the top 200, ranking 149th within Texas and receiving an overall score of 92.74.

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