Seven HISD high schools were included on lists of top American and Texas schools compiled by Newsweek magazine and the Texas Educational Excellence Project at Texas A&M University. The recognized HISD campuses are Bellaire High School, Carnegie Vanguard High School, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, the High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Lamar High School, Milby High School, and Westside High School.

Newsweek's Top Schools in America
On Newsweek’s list of the top 1,061 schools in America, 92 are in Texas. HISD schools making the list were ranked as follows: Bellaire High School 113, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, 173; Westside High School, 470; High School for Performing and Visual Arts, 482; and Lamar High School, 688. Of the top 25 Texas high schools on the list, Bellaire ranked ninth, and DeBakey was fourteenth.

Newsweek ranked U.S. high schools on the basis of two indicators of students’ college-readiness: the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests they give.

Texas Educational Excellence Project's Top Schools in Texas
TEEP’s list of the top 25 Texas high schools rated DeBakey fifth, Carnegie Vanguard seventh, Bellaire nineteenth, and HSPVA twenty-fifth. TEEP also named the top 25 Texas high schools in terms of achievement by African-American and Latino students. DeBakey High School for Health Professions took second place in both categories. Milby High School was rated ninth and HSPVA came in twelfth in African-American achievement, and Carnegie Vanguard was fifteenth in Latino achievement.

TEEP’s rating system included five indicators: a school’s graduation rate, its TAKS passing rate, the number of students whose SAT/ACT scores indicate college readiness (a standard defined by the state), the percentage of students taking Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses, and the percentage of students passing AP/IB tests. TEEP also identified those schools with diverse populations and fewer resources that “do more with less.”