Education news

5 Dallas high schools rank among America's best in 2025, per U.S. News

Dallas ISD The School for the Talented and Gifted

The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas ISD is the 9th best high school in the country, and the top high school in Texas.

tagmagnet.dallasisd.org/

Five prestigious Dallas-area high schools are living up to their reputations for top-tier education after being ranked among the best high schools in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report's just-released annual rankings.

Three high schools in Dallas Independent School District - The School for the Talented and Gifted, Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School, and the School of Science and Engineering - also clocked in as the top three best high schools in Texas.

U.S. News annually evaluates about 24,000 public high schools on six factors: college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance, and graduation rates. New for this year's batch of rankings, U.S. News discontinued its list of top magnet schools, citing a lack of new data from source Common Core of Data. The national best STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and charter schools rankings were unaffected.

Topping the 2025 list of best U.S. high schools is BASIS Tuscon North, a charter school in Tuscon, Arizona.

DISD's The School for the Talented and Gifted appeared as the 9th best high school in the U.S., and No. 1 in Texas. The school had been ranked No. 6 nationally since 2023. TAG also ranked 33rd nationally among the best STEM high schools, down from No. 21 in 2024.

Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School claimed the No. 2 spot statewide and ranked No. 15 nationally this year, up from No. 23 nationwide in 2024.

School of Science and Engineering rounded out the statewide top three and moved up into No. 23 in the national list of best high schools (up from No. 29 last year). In the national rankings of best STEM schools, SEM ranked 46 overall, down from No. 37 last year.

"Students and families need data to help them make one of the most important decisions of their academic journey. Our Best High Schools rankings provide the insights to help them identify schools that will prepare students for college success," said U.S. News managing editor for education LaMont Jones, Ed.D., in a press release. "Access to information isn't just helpful — it's essential for planning a student's future."

The two additional Dallas-area schools that earned spots in the nationwide top 100 were Grand Prairie Collegiate Institute (No. 54) and Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet (No. 84). GPCI dropped from its former No. 30 spot in 2024, and the Law Magnet moved up one spot from last year's national ranking. In the ranking of best Texas high schools, GPCI ranked 6th while the Law Magnet ranked 9th.

High schools across Dallas-Fort Worth that earned top-100 spots in the Texas-wide list
Other Dallas-Fort Worth schools that rank among Texas' 100 best are:

No. 13 – School of Health Professions, Dallas ISD
No. 14 – Westlake Academy, Westlake
No. 23 – Trinidad Garza Early College at Mt. View, Dallas ISD
No. 24 – Imagine International Academy of North Texas, McKinney
No. 25 – World Languages Institute, Fort Worth
No. 26 – Uplift Education-North Hills Prep High School, Irving
No. 34 – Young Women's Leadership Academy, Fort Worth ISD
No. 35 – Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy, Grand Prairie ISD
No. 36 – Highland Park High School, Highland Park ISD
No. 37 – Booker T. Washington SPVA, Dallas ISD
No. 41 – Rosie Sorrells Education and Social Services High School, Dallas ISD
No. 45 – James M. Steele Accelerated High School, Northwest ISD, Roanoke
No. 46 – Marvin E. Robinson School of Business and Management, Dallas ISD
No. 47 – Founders Classical Academy - Frisco
No. 50 – Dr. Wright L. Lassiter Jr. Early College High School, Dallas ISD
No. 58 – Cedar Hill Collegiate High School, Cedar Hill ISD
No. 61 – Reedy High School, Frisco ISD
No. 62 – Coppell High School, Coppell ISD
No. 65 – Lovejoy High School, Lovejoy ISD, Lucas
No. 69 – Liberty High School, Frisco ISD
No. 70 – Independence High School, Frisco ISD
No. 74 – Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, Dallas ISD
No. 78 – Centennial High School, Frisco ISD
No. 81 – Founders Classical Academy, Lewisville
No. 85 – Uplift Grand High School, Grand Prairie
No. 98 – Uplift Infinity High School, Irving
No. 100 – North Lake Early College High School, Dallas ISD

Other Texas high schools that rank among the best in the U.S.
These six additional Texas high schools made it into U.S. News' national list of the top 100 high schools for 2025-2026:

Austin ISD’s Liberal Arts and Science Academy, No. 36 (up from No. 38 last year). LASA also ranked No. 74 nationally among the best STEM high schools.
Houston ISD’s Carnegie Vanguard High School, No. 42 (down from No. 31 last year).
BASIS San Antonio - Shavano Campus, No. 58 (up from No. 64 last year). The Shavano Campus also ranked No. 18 nationally among the best STEM high schools and No. 14 nationally among the best charter high schools.
Houston ISD’s DeBakey High School for Health Professions, No. 75 (down from No. 70 last year).
Lubbock ISD's Talkington School for Young Women Leaders, No. 95 (up from No. 105 last year).
San Antonio ISD's Young Women's Leadership Academy, No. 98 (up from No. 106 last year).

high schools rankings dallas fort worth us news & world report

closing the gaps

Texas no longer leads U.S. for racial progress, new report says

The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Dallas

The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center/Facebook

WalletHub's report is released annually ahead of MLK Day.

Texas has been overtaken as the No. 1 state that has made the most racial progress, according to a new study.

The Lone Star State led the nation in 2025, but now ranks in third place behind Georgia (No. 1) and Mississippi (No. 2). It also ranked No. 5 nationally in the list of states with the most racial integration.

WalletHub's "States That Have Made the Most Racial Progress" study is released annually ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The report compares all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 22 relevant metrics divided into two main rankings: racial integration (which the study defines as "the current integration levels of white people and Black people") and racial progress (defined as "the levels of racial progress achieved over time").

The report's author clarifies that the study focuses only on the racial integration between Black people and white people "in light of racial tensions in recent years that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement."

"We released this report ahead of the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement to end segregation and discrimination against Black people," the report says.

The study further divided each ranking into four main categories measuring the gaps between white people and Black people over time; spanning employment and wealth, education, social and civic engagement, and health. Texas performed the best in education and health, ranking No. 4 nationally in both categories, and it ranked in sixth place for its social and civic engagement. The state ranked 16th in the category for employment and wealth.

According to WalletHub, Texas has "done a lot" to reduce gaps in health outcomes for white and Black residents, such as reducing gaps in health insurance coverage, and reducing the share of Black Texans suffering from "poor health" and diabetes. It also notes that Texas "made the second-most progress when it comes to obesity," but it did not acknowledge the racial bias in body mass index (BMI) that has been increasingly flagged in recent years.

The report further praises Texas for reducing the gap in business ownership between white and Black Texans, and for its improvement in reducing discrimination in the parole system. WalletHub does not offer data behind the parole claim.

"It’s encouraging to look at the data and see that some states have made significant strides toward racial equality over the past few decades," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo regarding the overall report. "This change demonstrates that state-level policies and residents’ attitudes regarding equality have grown considerably better."

Though racial disparity gaps are closing between white and Black people, racial profiling and discrimination is still a major issue affecting Black people and other people of color across the country.

In 2023, a senate bill banned public Texas universities from having diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs, prompting warnings of discrimination against Black, Hispanic, and other marginalized students, including those with disabilities.

The top 10 states with the most racial progress in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Georgia
No. 2 – Mississippi
No. 3 – Texas
No. 4 – North Carolina
No. 5 – Maryland
No. 6 – Florida
No. 7 – New Jersey
No. 8 – Massachusetts
No. 9 – Louisiana
No. 10 – New Mexico

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