Liberty High School

Liberty High School in Houston, TX, is a small high school serving 352 students in grades 9-12 within the Houston Independent School District (Isd), located in the Gulfton area where all students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

This school faces significant challenges, most notably a critically low graduation rate of just 35% for the 2023-2024 school year—the lowest among nearby schools and far below the 94-100% rates seen at high-performing peers like Challenge Early College High School and Energized For Stem Academy High School. The dropout rate of 21.9% is nearly six times the district average and the highest in the area. Academically, the school has historically ranked in the bottom 10% of Texas high schools, though recent data shows improvement, moving from the 6th to the 21st percentile and earning a 1-star rating for the first time in over a decade. A notable bright spot is U.S. History, where 74.47% of students are proficient—outperforming both the district and state averages. However, this contrasts sharply with English I Reading, where only 7.37% of students are proficient, a staggering 48-point gap from the state average, suggesting severe literacy challenges that likely contribute to the high dropout rate.

There are glimmers of hope: English Language Learner students have shown remarkable progress, jumping from the 7th to the 60th percentile and earning a 3-star rating, the highest for any subgroup at the school. The school shares a campus with Middle College H S At Hcc Gulfton, which also struggles with low graduation (55.6%) and high dropout (16.0%) rates. The success of nearby schools like Challenge Early College and Energized For Stem Academy, which serve similarly high-poverty populations but achieve graduation rates above 94%, demonstrates that these challenges are not inevitable and point to the need for systemic changes in school culture and instructional practices at Liberty High School.