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5 Best High Schools in Fort Worth



Many people have a lot of great things to say about Fort Worth, Texas. It’s no wonder that Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in America. Although there are many reasons to be a Fort Worth resident, it’s high-quality public education is certainly one reason that many families enjoy living in Cowtown.

Just how great are Fort Worth schools? We’re glad you asked because we had the same question!

After researching the best high schools in Fort Worth we now have the concrete proof just how great they are. For our first ranking in our school district series, we’ll show you how we calculated the Texas Education Agency’s metrics from the most recent report (2014) to rank each school that met their standards. While the TEA Index is pretty comprehensive, Frog Tutoring decided to evaluate a couple additional factors in the study we found. The following methodology was used in calculation:
  • SAT Factor (24%): The SAT was taken into consideration for this ranking out of a possible score of 2400, since the most recent statistics are from 2014 when the SAT was in it’s old format.
  • STAAR Expectations (22%): When taking the STAAR test into consideration, we look at the percentage of students who met or exceeded the expectations of the test in a given year.
  • TEA Index (22%): We utilized the Texas Education Agency’s 4 areas of academic excellence, which consist of Student Achievement, Student Progress, Closing Performance Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness.
  • AP Test Factor (18%): We wanted to include the percentage of students that made a score of at least a 3 or better on one or more AP test. We thought this was important to include in regards to college readiness.
  • Graduation Rate (10%): Graduation rate was taken into consideration for the purposes of measuring student achievement and postsecondary readiness.
  • Class Size (2%): Student-to-teacher ratio is important for an individual’s learning, so we took this into consideration.
  • Online Reviews (2%): We have weighted each school’s popularity score based on Facebook reviews, Greatschools.org reviews, and K12.Niche.org reviews.

If you’d like to see a more in-depth look at the TEA’s metrics for accountability standards, please click here. To determine a definitive ranking for the top high schools in Fort Worth, we combined these 7 factors to create one number to compare and contrast the success of each high school. These same factors were taken into consideration for each of the 13 public high schools in FWISD. Let’s take a look at the best high schools in Fort Worth! 



1. Paschal High School
Coming in at number one, Paschal High School is also the one of the largest high schools in Fort Worth. The student body’s current count is at 2,610 as of the most recent report card from the State of Texas. Apart from being one of the largest schools, Paschal reports an impressive 94.9% graduation rate which is over one point higher than the state average (93.% graduation rate). Students at Paschal also test well when it comes to standardized tests with 45% of the population meeting or exceeding the standards for the STAAR test. The average SAT scores reported were 1457, which is 40 points higher than the state average. Paschal boasts a great number of students who are ready to continue to college as well as a lower class size (approx. 18:1) on average despite the large total number of students.



2. Western Hills High School
Western Hills High School tops our list of best Fort Worth high schools with the lowest student-to-teacher ratio at 15:1. This average is below the state average, and clearly gives students the appropriate one-on-one time that they might need to learn the class material. With 50% of the school’s population meeting or exceeding the STAAR test requirements, the college preparedness score of this school is very high. Western Hills is located in the Benbrook area of town which is near the Southwest area of Fort Worth. 



 3. Trimble Technical High School
Trimble Technical High School has a long list of impressive standards that the school has met over the past few years. Beginning with the graduation rate of 95.2%, this average is almost two percentage points higher than the state. The test scores at Trimble are great, too, with 46% of the student body meeting or exceeding the standards of the STAAR test. Trimble Technical also boasts Recognition in the following areas: Math, Science, Social Studies, and Postsecondary Readiness. 



4. Arlington Heights High School
Arlington Heights High School is located on the western part of Fort Worth, right off of I-30. This red brick building stands out as an exceptional place to get an education for many reasons. Arlington Heights has one of the highest SAT averages of all schools we considered with 1325. It also has a very high scoring set of students taking the AP test with 46% of those tested making scores of a 3 or higher. Arlington Heights certainly has an impressive list of accomplishments, and an impressive student body. 



 5. Southwest High School
Southwest High School comes in at number 5, with an 18:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 1265. In the most recent report card from the Texas Education Agency, Southwest was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that 39% of Southwest students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.

Frog Tutoring Fort Worth Tutors are proud to present the best high schools in Fort Worth based on statistics released by the Texas Education Agency. Please share in the comments any personal experience that you have had in the Fort Worth Independent School District! If you'd like to know more about a specific school's data, please click here.


Note: We wanted to take a second to explain our methodology, and how we arrived at factoring in each area of success for our rankings. First, we made an extensive spreadsheet (which you can take a look at for yourself here), and collected all of the data that we needed for our results. Then we converted each factor into a percentage and multiplied that number by the percentage of how much it’s worth in our ranking system. Let’s look at an example: 

Paschal High School’s TEA Index ranking is 230/400.
  • 230 / 400 = 57.50%
  • Since this is 22% of our total, we used the percentage above to measure how much it’s worth in our ranking system. Which in this case is 22% of the total score.
  • 57.50 x .22 = 12.65%
If you’d like to know more about this process, please contact our coordinator, Judith, at [email protected].


Judith S
Experienced Marketing Coordinator
Texas Christian University
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