Best High Schools in Zip Code 78043

This analysis examines five high schools in the 78043 zip code of Laredo, Texas, serving grades 9-12 in a community marked by extreme economic disadvantage, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 75% to nearly 99% across reporting schools.

The largest and most traditional option is Nixon High School, part of the Laredo Independent School District (Isd), which serves over 2,100 students and has a relatively high graduation rate of 91.2%. However, its academic proficiency on STAAR EOC exams is alarmingly low—for example, only 5% of students were proficient in English II Reading compared to the state average of nearly 60%. In stark contrast, Premier H S Of Laredo, a charter school, has a critically low graduation rate of 56.7% and reported 0% proficiency in Algebra I. The F S Lara Academy, an alternative discipline campus, spends an extraordinary $123,428 per student with a 4.5:1 student-teacher ratio, but no recent test scores are available to measure academic return. Texasworks - Laredo operates as a workforce program with a 167.6:1 student-teacher ratio and reported 0% proficiency in both Algebra I and U.S. History. The Juvenille Justice Alternative Program, under the United Independent School District (Isd), serves only 12 students with a 75% free/reduced lunch rate.

All schools in this zip code rank in the bottom 15% of Texas high schools, with state ranking percentiles ranging from the 2nd (Texasworks) to the 15th (Nixon). The average graduation rate among reporting schools is just 74%, well below the state average. This data reveals a systemic academic struggle across the area, where even the largest, most traditional school underperforms its own district averages, suggesting a focus on credit recovery and promotion over rigorous academic achievement.