The Excel Center For Adults - Lockhart

The Excel Center For Adults - Lockhart is a small, specialized high school in Lockhart, TX, serving 118 students in grades 9-12 as part of the The Excel Center (For Adults) district, designed specifically to help adult learners—often those who have dropped out or are significantly behind—earn their high school diploma. This school operates with a fundamentally different mission than traditional high schools, which is crucial for parents to understand when reviewing its data. For example, while nearby Lockhart High School boasts a 86.3% graduation rate and a 2.9% dropout rate, The Excel Center For Adults - Lockhart reports a 34.1% graduation rate and a 40.5% dropout rate—numbers that reflect the immense challenges of re-engaging students who had no other path to graduation.

Despite these low absolute metrics, the Lockhart campus shows signs of being more effective than its own district's main campus, The Excel Center (For Adults), which serves 571 students. The Lockhart campus outperforms the main campus in graduation rate (34.1% vs. 8.6%), dropout rate (40.5% vs. 54.5%), and English II Reading proficiency (38.46% vs. 26%), suggesting that a smaller, more focused setting may benefit this student population. Additionally, the school's performance in English II Reading was a relative bright spot in 2022-2023, when it achieved a 68% proficiency rate—higher than the state average of 56%—though this has since declined. The school also spends less per student ($6,895) compared to nearby alternatives like Live Oak Academy ($11,084), which may indicate a lean operational model.

When compared to other alternative schools in the area, such as Lockhart Pride High School (83.7% graduation rate) and Lamar - Phoenix Alternative Education (5th percentile state rank), The Excel Center For Adults - Lockhart serves a particularly transient and hard-to-reach population. Its STAAR test proficiency rates are very low—for instance, Algebra I proficiency is 6.9% compared to the state average of 54.03%—but these scores reflect the significant foundational gaps many adult learners bring. Ultimately, this school's success should be measured by its ability to provide a second chance for students who had no other option, rather than by traditional metrics like test scores or rankings.