The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in English language arts. The lowest is 25% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Houston High School
Houston High School sits in Big Lake, a spread-out, lake-oriented community in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, part of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. The school serves grades nine through twelve and is a conventional public high school, not a charter or magnet program. Its enrollment is moderate for an Alaska high school, with students distributed fairly evenly across the four grade levels.
The student body is predominantly white, with a sizable multiracial population and an American Indian and Alaska Native presence that is larger than what many schools in the state serve. A smaller Hispanic enrollment and very small Asian, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander groups round out the population. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, pointing to a working-class community base. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not available, so a parent wanting to understand services for either of those populations would need to ask the school directly.
On Alaska's state assessment, the PEAKS test, Houston High's results show room for growth. Roughly a quarter of tested students reached proficiency in math, and about a third did so in English language arts. Participation was below full, which can affect results, though the school's published numbers still give a sense of where students stand. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether proficiency is improving, holding steady, or declining. A parent weighing academic outcomes may want to look into current results and supports with the school, especially in math, where proficiency was the weaker of the two subjects. Average scale scores were not reported. No nationally standardized academic context, graduation rate, civil rights data, course access information, staffing figures, or attendance data were provided for this school.
Big Lake itself shapes the Houston High experience in ways a family should understand. The community is very low-density and car-dependent, built around lakeside homes, cabins, and scattered subdivisions rather than a walkable town center. There is no traditional downtown, no fixed-route public transit, and no concentrated commercial core. Recreation defines local identity. The namesake lake with its extensive shoreline anchors a year-round outdoor culture of boating, fishing, jet skiing, snowmachining, dog mushing, ice fishing, and cross-country skiing. The area maintains trail systems for both dog mushing and motorized winter use. Several state recreation sites sit nearby, offering campgrounds, boat launches, and day-use areas.
Most residents commute to Wasilla, roughly a short drive to the east, or to Anchorage, farther south, for work. No major private employers are headquartered in Big Lake. Local employment centers on small recreation-oriented businesses, borough government facilities, and home-based operations. The community has grown steadily over decades, though one tracking source suggests the population may currently be declining. A high proportion of housing units are vacant, reflecting the large seasonal and recreational cabin inventory. Recent public investment includes a state legislative grant for realigning South Big Lake Road and the borough's purchase and reopening of the Big Lake Lions Recreation Center in the current year. Civic anchors such as the public library, parks along Fish Creek, and the recreation center are scattered along the South Big Lake Road corridor rather than clustered in a single civic center.
The district brief for Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District returned no specific parent-relevant changes of lasting impact, such as referenda, curriculum overhauls, or property-tax shifts. That means a family evaluating Houston High should ask the district and the school directly about any recent programmatic or policy shifts.
Houston High fits families drawn to a rural, recreation-centered lifestyle within commuting distance of the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage. It is a small enough school that students are not lost in a large system, and the community has a distinct identity rooted in the lake and the outdoors. The academic data, though limited, suggests the school is working from a modest proficiency baseline, and families for whom test performance is a priority will want to dig deeper than the available data allows.
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