Nearly half of the top public high schools in Texas are in the Houston area, according to recently released school rankings from Niche.
Carnegie Vanguard High School, Houston ISD’s only high school campus for gifted-and-talented students, ranked No. 4 in the state, according to the widely used school finder, which released its 2026 rankings Monday. Two other HISD schools topped the list alongside five campuses from Houston’s suburbs, including Katy ISD’s Seven Lakes High School.
Three well-known HISD campuses – including Carnegie, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and DeBakey High School for Health Professions – were named among the top 20 public high schools in the state. The three cracked the top 100 schools in Texas in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings in September, and Carnegie and Debakey were both listed as among the top 100 schools in the country…