Highland Park ISD in Dallas County posted the highest 2026 STAAR results of any traditional Texas school district with at least 5,000 students. About 92% of its students met grade level in reading and 87% in math, according to allk12's analysis of Texas Education Agency data.
Its two-subject average of 89.1% put Highland Park 7.2 points ahead of second-place Eanes ISD in Travis County, at 81.9%. Carroll ISD, Coppell ISD, and Wylie ISD in Collin County rounded out the top five. Statewide, across every Texas public school with results, about 56% of students met grade level in reading and 47% in math, using the same enrollment weighting.
TEA sorts STAAR scores into four levels: Masters, Meets, Approaches, and Did Not Meet Grade Level. This ranking counts students at Meets or above, a level the agency says shows "a high likelihood of success in the next grade or course." Results cover all tested grades in spring 2026, from grade 3 through high school end-of-course exams.
Texas school districts ranked
| Rank | District | Students | Reading at grade level | Math at grade level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Highland Park ISD | 6,350 | 91.6% | 86.7% |
| 2 | Eanes ISD | 7,604 | 87.0% | 76.9% |
| 3 | Carroll ISD | 8,105 | 78.6% | 82.1% |
| 4 | Coppell ISD | 13,233 | 83.2% | 76.8% |
| 5 | Wylie ISD (Collin County) | 19,401 | 77.8% | 76.0% |
| 6 | Friendswood ISD | 6,194 | 79.9% | 72.4% |
| 7 | Barbers Hill ISD | 7,875 | 78.0% | 74.3% |
| 8 | Aledo ISD | 8,430 | 79.6% | 72.5% |
| 9 | Argyle ISD | 6,166 | 80.0% | 71.9% |
| 10 | Frisco ISD | 65,289 | 80.7% | 70.7% |
| 11 | Tomball ISD | 22,913 | 76.8% | 74.4% |
| 12 | Allen ISD | 20,838 | 76.1% | 72.2% |
| 13 | Lake Travis ISD | 11,008 | 77.1% | 69.5% |
| 14 | Roma ISD | 6,019 | 69.0% | 75.2% |
| 15 | Boerne ISD | 11,101 | 77.3% | 66.4% |
| 16 | Prosper ISD | 31,651 | 78.0% | 65.2% |
| 17 | Grapevine-Colleyville ISD | 13,541 | 76.3% | 64.7% |
| 18 | Pearland ISD | 20,862 | 73.0% | 66.4% |
| 19 | Midway ISD | 8,824 | 74.8% | 64.4% |
| 20 | Melissa ISD | 7,735 | 74.3% | 63.7% |
| 21 | Dripping Springs ISD | 8,712 | 77.9% | 59.4% |
| 22 | Katy ISD | 96,111 | 71.5% | 64.9% |
| 23 | Nederland ISD | 5,317 | 69.5% | 64.8% |
| 24 | Wylie ISD (Taylor County) | 5,606 | 71.6% | 62.6% |
| 25 | Round Rock ISD | 46,954 | 70.2% | 62.1% |
Traditional (non-charter) Texas districts with at least 5,000 students; 192 districts qualified. Figures are the share of students at Meets Grade Level or above on spring 2026 STAAR tests, all tested grades combined, averaged across each district's schools and weighted by enrollment. Ranked by the average of the two subjects. Students is total 2024-25 enrollment. Source: allk12 analysis of Texas Education Agency and NCES data.
Eleven of the 25 sit in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, and Parker counties. Collin County alone has five: Wylie, Frisco, Allen, Prosper, and Melissa. Five more are in Harris County or counties that border it, and four are in Travis, Hays, and Williamson counties around Austin.
Frisco is the largest district in the top 10, with 65,289 students. Katy ISD, with 96,111, is the largest in the top 25.
Roma ISD, in Starr County along the Rio Grande, is the outlier. About 90% of its students, 5,409 of 6,019, qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25, according to NCES. Across Texas schools that reported the figure, the rate was 61.6%. Roma's math rate of 75.2% was higher than Frisco's or Katy's, and Roma and Carroll were the only top-25 districts where math beat reading.
How the state's own ratings compare
TEA's 2026 A-F accountability ratings, released August 14, 2026, mostly agree with the test-score list. According to the agency's statewide ratings spreadsheet, 21 of the 25 districts above earned an A. The other four earned a B: Katy (88), Dripping Springs (89), Round Rock (89), and the Wylie ISD in Taylor County, near Abilene (88). Highland Park's overall score of 95 was the highest of the 25.
A ratings are less common statewide. Of the 1,186 districts that received a letter grade, 198 earned an A, or about 17%. The A-F system weighs more than raw scores: TEA grades three areas, Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps, so growth and gaps between student groups count too. allk12's write-up of the 2026 Texas A-F ratings covers the statewide results.
The state's largest districts land much lower in the test-score ranking. Houston ISD, with 176,727 students, ranked 77th of 192, with 55.1% of students at grade level in reading and 49.8% in math. Dallas ISD ranked 100th at 52.9% and 45.6%. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD ranked 57th, and Northside ISD in San Antonio ranked 97th. TEA rated Houston, Dallas, and Cypress-Fairbanks a B and Northside a C.
The list leaves out charter schools, including IDEA Public Schools, which enrolled 79,430 students in 2024-25. Two districts share the Wylie ISD name, and both made the top 25, so the table labels them by county.
For other ways to read Texas schools, see what the No. 1 school district in Texas is, which Texas counties have the best schools, and how the 2026 STAAR results changed from 2025. Each district's page on allk12 shows its schools, demographics, and scores by year.
Sources
Texas Education Agency: TEA Releases 2026 A-F Accountability Ratings on TXschools.gov
Texas Education Agency: 2026 Accountability Rating System
Texas Education Agency: STAAR Performance Standards
National Center for Education Statistics: Common Core of Data
Test results from allk12's analysis of Texas Education Agency STAAR data, spring 2026. Enrollment and free or reduced-price lunch counts from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
