Summary:
Hays has six schools: three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and one alternative school, serving students from elementary through high school. In 2025–26, the six schools’ average proficiency was 50% in ELA, 42% in math and 41% in science, each slightly above the state average. Results vary widely from school to school, with Kathryn O’Loughlin McCarthy Elementary the clearest standout.
McCarthy led all three subjects, with 76% proficiency in ELA, 71% in math and 61% in science—about 30, 30 and 23 points above state results, respectively. Woodrow Wilson Elementary ranked second in ELA and math, at 66% and 58%, but its 34% science result was below the state’s 38%. Hays Middle School exceeded the state in all three subjects: by 4 points in ELA, 9 in math and 6 in science. At the lower end, Hays Virtual School had the lowest ELA and math scores, 15% and 0%; Hays High had the lowest science score, 29%. Virtual’s 11th-grade science result was 7 points higher than High’s.
Recent trends are mixed: the six-school averages fell from 56% to 50% in ELA and from 45% to 42% in math, while the average science result for the four schools with results in both years rose from 44% to 45%. McCarthy improved in ELA and math, as did Hays Middle in math; Virtual and High had especially large declines in ELA and math. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile for Middle rose from 63 to 77 between 2023–24 and 2025–26, while High’s fell from 77 to 42; McCarthy remained high, shifting from 97 to 96. The three elementary schools have similar enrollment (364–420), student-teacher ratios (14.1–14.7) and reported free/reduced-lunch rates (38%–41%), despite notably different results. Because schools serve different grade spans, all-grades scores are not direct like-for-like comparisons.
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