Every public school, district, and the headline NCES measures for Texas - 1,212 districts, drawn straight from federal records.
Compiled by PlainSchools, Education-data publisher
Scored 0-100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores - the same index shown on every school page, averaged across 8,983 scored Texas schools. Full methodology →
The state in one line
Texas runs 9,061 public schools across 1,212 districts, with a 14.7:1 average classroom and 61.9% of students on subsidized lunch.
9,061
public schools
1,212
school districts
14.7:1
avg student–teacher
61.9%
free/reduced lunch
How Texas ranks nationally
Per-pupil spending
$14,348
#37of 51 · highest-spending
Average student-teacher ratio
14.7:1
#30of 51 · lowest ratios
Public schools
9,061
#2of 51 · most schools
On subsidized lunch
61.9%
#7of 43 · highest share
Texas ranks #37 of 51 nationally on per-pupil spending and #30 of 51 on average student-teacher ratio, derived live by comparing it against every other state. Ranked among all 50 states + DC from NCES enrollment/staffing and the F-33 finance survey. Lunch share is an indicator of student need, not of quality.
What the NCES Data Says About Texas Schools
Texas operates 9,061 public K-12 schools organised into 1,212 independent school districts serving 5,491,723 students, per the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data 2024-25. The largest district, Houston Isd, enrolls 189,934 pupils across 274 schools at $13,072 per student, while smaller rural districts can run fewer than a dozen campuses. This fragmentation, inherited from century-old township governance patterns in many states, is why per-pupil spending, class sizes, and programme availability vary dramatically inside a single state boundary.
Statewide, the average student-teacher ratio is 14.7:1, a useful benchmark for comparing any individual district or school on PlainSchools. Free-lunch eligibility averages 61.9% across Texas public schools, a federal indicator of economic need that drives Title I funding allocations. The district table below is sortable by enrollment, school count, and per-pupil expenditure, the three fields that best predict a district's financial and demographic profile. For schools specifically, use the rankings links above to view per-category leaderboards covering spending, student-teacher ratio, best schools by composite quality score, chronic absenteeism, and funding-equity distribution within the state.
Every district figure here pulls from two distinct federal surveys: enrollment and demographic data come from the NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25 (school membership and directory), while per-pupil spending, teacher salaries, and federal/state/local revenue shares originate in the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey (FY 2022-23). Civil-rights indicators, gifted enrollment, AP course counts, counselor staffing, chronic absenteeism, in- and out-of-school suspensions, come from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Cross-referencing these three sources is what lets PlainSchools produce composite scores and equity rankings that single-source tools cannot.
Texas's average student-teacher ratio vs. every US state
Average students per teacher, state by state (lower means more staffing per student)
15lower student-teacher ratio than 41% of 51 US states
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Education, NCES Common Core of Data · 2024-25
Federal data, transparent formula.
PlainSchools publishes the actual federal survey data - enrollment, staffing, finance, and demographics from NCES. The diversity index and composite quality scores referenced on this page are PlainSchools' own transparent derived indices (not an official NCES rating), computed directly from those datasets with the exact formula disclosed on our methodology page; every input number traces to a cited source. These figures describe reported resource allocation across a large, varied state - a starting point for comparing districts and schools, not a substitute for reviewing a specific school's own record.
Texas per-pupil spending varies 28.6× across districts
Per-pupil spending in Texas ranges from $1,721 (lowest district) to $49,156 (highest), a spread of $47,435. That ratio is among the widest in the country and predicts large gaps in class size, programme availability, and counselor:student ratios that compound across a 12-year K-12 career. High-spending districts typically draw on higher property tax bases, a structural feature of state education finance under the federal Title I framework that sets the floor but not the ceiling.
Texas has higher-than-average Title I eligibility - 61.9% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
Free-lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which replaced No Child Left Behind in defining how the federal government distributes K-12 supplemental funding. Districts above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. States with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local property tax base, which can either offset spending gaps or reinforce them depending on state allocation policy.
Texas operates 1,212 school districts, among the most fragmented K-12 governance structures in the country
Each district has independent budgeting, hiring, and curriculum authority. The fragmentation predates modern county-level consolidation efforts and reflects 19th-century township governance patterns, a feature of states that organised public schooling around small civic units rather than centralised state systems. Per-pupil spending and accountability variations are largest in fragmented states because each district sets its own tax rate, contracts, and programme mix without state-level coordination above the regulatory floor.
Average Texas student-teacher ratio is 14.7:1 - near the U.S. average of approximately 16:1
Student-teacher ratio is the simplest staffing metric reported on NCES Common Core of Data, but it does not capture push-in specialists, intervention staff, English Language Learner aides, special education co-teachers, or counseling and support staff. Variation between districts within the state is wider than the state-average figure suggests, large urban districts may run 20:1 while small rural districts run 10:1, both inside the same average. Class-load comparisons are most meaningful at the district or school level, not the state aggregate.
Texas's public schools average a Simpson diversity index of 44.7/100, about the same as the national average of 43.5. The index runs 0-100 from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality. See where Texas ranks in our national school-diversity analysis.
Data sourced from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22.
Using the Texas data
Texas's 9,061 schools sit inside 1,212 districts - compare at the district level first.
District boundaries decide enrollment: shortlist 2-3 districts on spending, ratio, and size before comparing individual schools. Compare districts →
Check how Texas distributes money across its districts, funding equity varies more within states than between them. Funding equity →
Verify any school's federal record (enrollment, staffing, CRDC flags) before a visit or enrollment decision. Look up a school →
Figures are the federal record (CCD 2024-25, F-33 FY 2022-23, CRDC 2021-22) - they lag the current school year. PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score used in our rankings is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many public schools are in Texas?
Texas has 9,061 public schools across 1212 school districts, serving 5,491,723 students.
What is the average student-teacher ratio in Texas?
The average student-teacher ratio in Texas public schools is 14.7:1. This varies by district, use the district table below to compare.
What percentage of Texas students qualify for free lunch?
61.9% of students in Texas qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of economic need used for Title I funding.
What is the largest school district in Texas?
The largest school district in Texas is Houston Isd with 189,934 students across 274 schools.
Why does per-pupil spending vary so much across Texas districts?
Texas districts spend between $1,721 and $49,156 per pupil, a 28.6× range. This is an EXTREME spread even by U.S. standards, where most states show ratios well under 10×. A gap this wide usually signals a small number of outlier districts (often tiny rural or specialty districts) skewing the range rather than a uniform statewide pattern. The federal F-33 finance survey reports actual current expenditures including instructional and support services.
Largest K-12 public schools by total students enrolled
students
Texas Virtual Academy …
19,731
Texas Virtual Academy at Hallsville
19,731 students
100.0% of the leader · rank #1 · Hallsville, TX
Lone Star Online Academy
11,686
Lone Star Online Academy
11,686 students
59.2% of the leader · rank #2 · Roscoe, TX
Texas Connections Acad…
8,641
Texas Connections Academy at Houston
8,641 students
43.8% of the leader · rank #3 · Houston, TX
Conroe H S
5,252
Conroe H S
5,252 students
26.6% of the leader · rank #4 · Conroe, TX
Allen H S
5,206
Allen H S
5,206 students
26.4% of the leader · rank #5 · Allen, TX
The Woodlands H S
4,444
The Woodlands H S
4,444 students
22.5% of the leader · rank #6 · The Woodlands, TX
Duncanville H S
4,399
Duncanville H S
4,399 students
22.3% of the leader · rank #7 · Duncanville, TX
North Shore Senior High
4,284
North Shore Senior High
4,284 students
21.7% of the leader · rank #8 · Houston, TX
What this shows The largest public schools in Texas by enrollment, often statewide virtual academies or large consolidated campuses, so size here reflects reach, not quality.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) - Public school universe · 2023-2024 Public K-12 school enrollment, demographics, and operational data; collected annually by NCES from state education agencies.