High Schools in San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District

The San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District in Texas operates two high schools—San Marcos High School, a large comprehensive campus serving grades 9-12, and Lamar - Phoenix Alternative Education, a small alternative school—that together serve a high-needs student population in a growing Central Texas area.

San Marcos High School is the district's primary high school with 2,371 students, and it has shown meaningful improvement in its state ranking, moving from the 27th percentile (1 star) in 2023-2024 to the 36th percentile (2 stars) for both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. However, its academic performance reveals a critical weakness: Algebra I proficiency sits at just 11.74%, far below the state average of 54.03%, while U.S. History proficiency (67.98%) is much closer to the state average (70.17%). The school's graduation rate is 89.2%, above the district's 87.5%, but its dropout rate of 2.5% is higher than the district's 1.8%. In stark contrast, Lamar - Phoenix Alternative Education serves only 55 students and ranks in the 5th percentile (0 stars) for 2025-2026, placing it among the lowest-performing high schools in Texas. Its test scores are critically low—English I proficiency is 22.22%, English II is 14.29%, and U.S. History is 26.32%—and no data is available for Algebra I or Biology, which is common for alternative campuses where students may not take those specific exams.

The most important takeaway for parents is the dramatic difference between these two schools. San Marcos High School is improving overall but struggles significantly with math, while Lamar - Phoenix Alternative Education serves a highly at-risk population (87.27% economically disadvantaged) with very low academic outcomes and sparse data on graduation or dropout rates. Because San Marcos High School represents the vast majority of high school students, the district's overall performance is almost entirely tied to its success, and the alternative school's challenges are masked in district averages due to its tiny enrollment. Both schools have student-teacher ratios around 14:1, but the alternative school's slightly smaller class size (13.7:1) is typical for settings designed for more individualized attention.