The latest Texas school accountability ratings offer plenty of numbers to celebrate across the Amarillo area. They also offer a reminder of why a single letter grade can never tell the whole story of a school.
The Texas Education Agency released its A-F Accountability Ratings for the 2025-2026 school year Friday, grading districts and campuses on Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps.
Across Canyon, Amarillo, Bushland, Highland Park and River Road independent school districts, the results range from impressive to concerning. But perhaps the clearest takeaway is that the area's high schools are performing particularly well.
None of the high schools included in the ratings earned below a B overall.
Bushland High School led the group with a 95. Amarillo, Palo Duro and Highland Park high schools each earned a 93, while Canyon High School received a 92. Randall, Caprock and Tascosa high schools also earned A's.
That's worth recognizing. These ratings incorporate more than STAAR performance. At the high school level, Student Achievement also considers graduation rates and preparation for life after graduation.
But the district-level numbers reveal another important story: The communities producing these results are not starting from the same place.
Amarillo ISD moves in the right direction
Amarillo ISD may have the most encouraging districtwide result.
Its overall score climbed from 83 to 85, with improvement in all three accountability categories. Its Closing the Gaps score rose from 79 to 83, moving from a C to a B.
That matters in a district where nearly 70% of more than 28,000 students are considered economically disadvantaged.
Amarillo ISD earned an 82 in Student Achievement and an 86 in School Progress. Its relative performance score — which compares performance with districts or schools serving similar economically disadvantaged populations — was also 86.
Several campuses stood out in Student Achievement. Puckett, Sleepy Hollow, Windsor and Woodlands elementary schools; Bonham and Lorenzo de Zavala middle schools; and Amarillo High School earned A's.
The district's results aren't uniformly positive, however.
George Washington Carver Elementary Academy was the only Amarillo ISD campus to earn an F in Student Achievement, and its overall score dropped sharply, from 73 to 55.
That deserves attention precisely because the district as a whole improved. Districtwide progress shouldn't obscure a campus where the numbers are moving dramatically in the opposite direction.
River Road makes the biggest jump
If Amarillo ISD's improvement is encouraging, River Road ISD's is difficult to overlook.
River Road jumped nine points overall, from 71 to 80, moving from a C to a B.
The biggest change came in Closing the Gaps, where the district surged from 65 to 81. Student Achievement improved three points to 76, while School Progress increased five points to 79.
Those gains are especially notable considering nearly 70% of River Road's 1,183 students are economically disadvantaged.
There is still substantial room for improvement. Rolling Hills Elementary earned an F in Student Achievement and received a 59 overall, although that overall score was two points better than the previous year.
River Road High School, meanwhile, earned an A in Closing the Gaps.
That contrast is a useful illustration of why accountability data is more valuable when readers look beyond the district's headline grade. An 80 tells us River Road improved. It doesn't tell us where that improvement occurred — or where serious challenges remain.
Canyon and Bushland remain strong, but slip slightly
Canyon ISD earned an 87 overall, down one point from 88. Student Achievement also declined by one point, while its other two major accountability measures remained steady.
The district earned an 87 in Student Achievement and an 87 in Closing the Gaps. Its academic growth score was 76, while its relative performance score was 80.
No Canyon ISD campus earned below a C in Student Achievement, and several received A's, including Canyon High School.
Bushland ISD came closest among these districts to an overall A, scoring an 89 after earning a 90 the previous year.
Its Student Achievement score remained an impressive 91. Bushland Junior High and Bushland High School earned A's in that category.
The weak spot was School Progress, which fell from 77 to 74. Bushland's academic growth score was 72.
That shouldn't erase the district's strong achievement results, but neither should a 91 in Student Achievement make the growth numbers irrelevant. Accountability should be about both where students are and whether they are continuing to advance.
Highland Park's Closing the Gaps decline stands out
Highland Park ISD earned an 81 overall, down from 83.
Its Student Achievement score actually increased by one point to 83, and School Progress remained unchanged at 81.
The concern is Closing the Gaps.
That score dropped eight points, from 84 to 76. Highland Park Elementary received an F in that category.
Closing the Gaps is designed to measure whether different groups of students are meeting achievement targets. A significant decline therefore deserves scrutiny even when other district measures remain relatively stable.
Highland Park High School was a bright spot, earning an A in Student Achievement and a 93 overall.
Letter grades are the beginning of the conversation
Two area elementary schools — Rolling Hills and George Washington Carver — received overall F's, along with associated early-learning academies whose ratings are based on their paired campuses.
Those grades carry consequences beyond an unfavorable report card.
About 4% of Texas campuses received an overall F this year. Campuses receiving an F are placed on the Public Education Grant list for the following year, giving parents of students assigned to those schools an opportunity to request a transfer. Campuses receiving an F this year are preliminarily slated for the 2027-2028 list.
Parents have every reason to pay attention to those designations. But they should also look at what sits underneath them.
A school can struggle with overall achievement while showing academic growth. A district can post a respectable overall score while one student group or campus falls behind. And two districts with similar grades may serve student populations facing substantially different economic circumstances.
Consider the range locally. Only a little more than 16% of Bushland ISD students are economically disadvantaged, compared with nearly 70% in Amarillo and River Road ISDs. Canyon is at roughly 33%, while Highland Park is near 54%.
Those differences don't mean expectations should be lowered for any child. They do mean that context matters when judging what the numbers say about schools, educators and students.
The same principle applies to staffing. Student-to-teacher ratios range from 12.1 in River Road and 12.3 in Highland Park to 15.7 in Canyon. District enrollment ranges from 723 students in Highland Park to more than 28,000 in Amarillo.
These aren't interchangeable school systems, and their accountability scores shouldn't be interpreted as though they are.
There is one area where all five districts received top marks: financial accountability. Each earned an A under the School Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, based on 2023-2024 financial data.
The academic ratings are more complicated — and that's exactly why they're useful.
The encouraging news is unmistakable: Amarillo ISD improved across all three major measures, River Road made a nine-point leap, Bushland and Canyon continue to post strong achievement numbers, and area high schools performed exceptionally well overall.
The uncomfortable numbers shouldn't be ignored either. Two elementary campuses received F's. Highland Park experienced a substantial Closing the Gaps decline. Bushland's School Progress score slipped. And even districts with strong overall ratings have campuses and measures where improvement is needed.
An A-F rating makes for an easy headline. The numbers underneath it tell the more important story.
