Hill Country Middle

Hill Country Middle in Austin, TX, serves 946 students in grades 6-8 within the affluent Westlake area and is part of the highly-ranked Eanes Independent School District (Isd).

This school consistently ranks in the top 2% of all Texas middle schools, a testament to its decade-long track record of exceptional academic performance. A key differentiator is its extraordinary success in advanced mathematics: nearly all 8th graders taking Algebra I achieve perfect proficiency rates (99-100%), more than double the state average. The school also excels in supporting all students, ranking in the 98th-99th percentile for Special Education and historically in the 95th-97th percentile for At-Risk students. With a very low student-to-teacher ratio of 13.1:1, students receive more personalized attention than at nearby high-performing schools like Kealing Middle (17.2:1) or Small Middle (16.6:1).

While Hill Country Middle is a standout, it's important to note the stark contrast with many nearby schools in the Austin Independent School District (Isd), such as Martin Middle and Bedichek Middle, which serve significantly different student populations and have much lower proficiency rates. Interestingly, Kealing Middle stands as a high-performing outlier within Austin ISD, achieving comparable results to Hill Country Middle. One pattern to be aware of is a consistent "7th grade math slump" in proficiency, likely due to the school's advanced math tracking. Additionally, recent data shows a slight dip in rankings for English Language Learner students (from the 96th to 61st percentile), suggesting a need to monitor support for this group to maintain the school's historic equity of outcomes.