Two Houston schools have earned places among Texas’ top five public elementary schools in U.S. News & World Report’s newly released 2027 rankings, led by Spring Branch Academic Institute at No. 1 statewide. T.H. Rogers School, part of Houston ISD, ranked fourth.
The rankings, reported October 20, also placed Spring Branch Academic Institute first among Texas middle schools. T.H. Rogers earned the fifth-place spot in that category, giving both campuses top-five recognition at the elementary and middle-school levels.
Strong Results in Reading and Math
Spring Branch Academic Institute reported 100% proficiency in both mathematics and reading, while T.H. Rogers reported 94% proficiency in mathematics and 98% in reading. Those figures represent the share of students scoring at or above the proficient level on state assessments, rather than the share earning perfect scores.
T.H. Rogers’ fourth-place elementary ranking marked a nine-position improvement from No. 13 in the previous edition. It also ranked as the highest-performing elementary school within Houston ISD on the U.S. News list.
Although both schools are in Houston, they belong to different school districts. Spring Branch Academic Institute is part of Spring Branch ISD, while T.H. Rogers belongs to Houston ISD—a distinction that matters when interpreting the city’s results.
Spring Branch Academic Institute is not an elementary-only campus. U.S. News lists the school as serving grades 1–12, with 174 students and a student–teacher ratio of 5:1. Its total enrollment therefore should not be read as the number of elementary students included in the assessment results.
Houston-Area Schools Earn Additional Top-25 Spots
Several other schools across the Houston region also placed among Texas’ top 25 public elementary schools. Creekside Forest Elementary in Tomball ISD ranked No. 14, followed by Houston ISD’s West University Elementary at No. 15. Stafford STEM Magnet Academy ranked No. 19, and Commonwealth Elementary in Fort Bend ISD placed No. 21.
The results span multiple districts, reflecting strong placements across the broader metropolitan area rather than within Houston ISD alone.
What the Rankings Measure
U.S. News bases its elementary and middle-school rankings primarily on state mathematics and reading assessments, including how students perform relative to expectations associated with their socioeconomic backgrounds. The 2027 edition relies primarily on assessment results from the 2023–24 school year, while some school-profile information comes from more recent federal data.
