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Houston, Texas - 273 schools
An equity score of 35/100 ranks Houston Isd #759 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,031 per pupil, Houston Isd ranks #776 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
189,934
Total Enrollment
273
Schools
$12,031
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Houston Isd operates 273 public schools serving 189,934 students, placing it among the largest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 181 combined, 42 high, 41 middle, 9 elementary schools, giving families in a major system a clear picture of grade-band coverage across a large portfolio before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Harris County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,031 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 68.8% local, 8.0% state, and 23.2% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 35/100, ranked #759 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 43 of 273 schools offering Advanced Placement (533 AP courses district-wide), a 531.6:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 34.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 63.6% Hispanic or Latino, 24.2% African American, 6.7% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Bush El, with a diversity index of 77.0/100.
Its largest campus is Texas Connections Academy at Houston, enrolling 8,641 students (5% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Harris Co J J a E P, at 25 students, a 346x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Houston Isd school enrollment varies 346× across entities
Houston Isd school enrollment ranges from 25 students (lowest) to 8,641 students (highest), a spread of 8,616 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Houston Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 82.9% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Houston Isd student-counselor ratio is 532:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Houston Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 34.4% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.