Two Houston ISD schools among the nation's 20 best

Gilbert Martinez graduates from high school in May, but he's already on the cusp of selling a calculator app company for millions of dollars.

While that may shock a lay person, he said that type of thing is normal at Carnegie Vanguard High School in the Houston ISD. One classmate invented a water filtration system to serve poverty-stricken communities, earning him the ear of Rice University researchers. Another created a wristband that changes color when the wearer is dehydrated, while a recent alum toured the state with his model wind turbines.

"Here, all the teachers tell you to do more than the minimum, so a lot of our projects are out of school," Martinez said. "I came from a low-performing middle school, so it's different that everyone here really has an academic focus and tries to do their best all the time."

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Carnegie Vanguard on Tuesday was named the eighth-best high school in the country and the second-best in Texas by U.S. News & World Report, which publishes the annual rankings.

DeBakey High School for Health Professions also placed high, ranking as the 18th-best nationwide and the fourth-best in Texas.

Both schools jumped in the rankings — with Carnegie Vanguard moving up from No. 10 last year and DeBakey High School rising from No. 29.

Challenge Early College High School, an HISD campus where more than 70 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, was ranked the 8th-best in Texas and 69th-best in the country.

The magazine's annual rankings of high schools and colleges are closely followed in education. Officials examine whether students perform better than expected in their state, how well disadvantaged students perform compared to the state average, graduation rates and preparedness for college-level coursework.

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Despite the recognition of its magnet schools and HISD's focus on such programs, many of the district's other magnets dropped on the list. All eight of the Dallas ISD magnet schools ranked by the magazine placed among its list of top 100 magnet programs in the country, while only five of Houston's 15 ranked magnet schools made the cut. Jordan High School was ranked third-to-last at No. 290.

Still, even schools ranked lower on the list were among the top performers in the nation, earning a bronze designation and a ranking. In contrast, more than 70 percent of high schools nationwide were not ranked or given a distinction.

Houston ISD's two highest-ranked schools were among four in Texas to earn slots in the top 20 national rankings. The other two were located within the Dallas ISD.

Suburban school districts in the Houston area did not have any schools represented on the state's top 20 list.

Victory Early College High School in the Aldine ISD came closest at No. 21 in the state. The next highest-ranked suburban public schools on the best-of-Texas list were Alief ISD's Early College High School at No. 37, Clear Creek ISD's Clear Horizons Early College High School at No. 45 and The Woodlands High School in the Conroe ISD at No. 59.

But YES Prep, a local charter school operator, had four of its eight Houston-area high schools place among the state's top 20. They are YES Prep Southwest, ranked 11th; YES Prep East End, 12th; YES Prep Southeast, 18th; and YES Prep North Central, 19th.

The YES Prep schools differ from many others higher up in the rankings because 80 percent or more of the students at each campus meet federal poverty guidelines to quality for free or reduced-priced meals, and 90 percent of the students at each campus are minorities. By comparison, only about 28 percent of students at Carnegie Vanguard and 41 percent of students at DeBakey are economically disadvantaged.

Mark DiBella, YES Prep's CEO, is quick to point out that students at its schools are selected at random through a lottery process, while those at Carnegie Vanguard must meet certain IQ requirements before being picked via a lottery.

"We have a national problem that plays out in Houston: we don't believe as a people in the capability and potential of students of color," DiBella said. "We fundamentally believe (that) although access (to a great education) isn't equally distributed, genius is."

Expectations are high the moment that students step foot on campus, and the most-experienced teachers at each often spend 1-on-1 time or work with struggling students in small groups to get them up to grade level.

But like many charters, YES Prep struggles to retain teachers. About 27 percent of its teachers leave the district each year, compared with about 16 percent who leave its districts statewide. DiBella said the schools have placed more of a priority on training teachers and created programs aimed at keeping the best in their schools.

"If you boil it down, the secret sauce is a model that year after year after year, students are getting exceptional teachers in every classroom," DiBella said.

Martinez of Carnegie Vanguard High School agreed. He said the teachers there encourage and push the students to challenge themselves both in the classroom and with extracurricular activities.

After being surrounded by hardworking and like-minded students for four years, he said, he's always surprised to see how highly the school ranks nationally in similar rankings.

"Inside this fishbowl, it just seems normal," Martinez said, shrugging. "But to see the school compared to everyone else, it's still remarkable."

Scroll through the gallery above to see high school principals in the Houston suburbs