The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in English language arts. The lowest is 2% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Highlands H S
Highlands High School sits on Elgin Avenue in San Antonio's urban core, part of San Antonio ISD, serving students in grades nine through twelve. The neighborhood around it reflects the older inner city: modest streets within a short distance of downtown, close enough to benefit from the River Walk corridor and VIA Metropolitan Transit's network, and squarely within a housing market where home values and rents run well below both the Texas and national midpoints. For families renting or buying in this part of the city, the cost of living is meaningfully lower than San Antonio's newer suburban edges.
The student body is large for a neighborhood high school, predominantly Hispanic, with a very high share qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Nearly the entire enrollment falls into that economic category, which is an important lens for reading the school's academic picture. Data on English learner status and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
On state assessments, proficiency is a real challenge. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to the districts of Bexar County. The most recent STAAR results available show that in reading and language arts, roughly half of tested students reached the "approaches" level, meaning they are meeting the minimum passing threshold, while the share reaching the higher "meets" standard is considerably lower, and very few reach the "masters" level. Math results are weaker still, with fewer than half approaching grade level and only a small fraction meeting standard. Science is a relative bright spot at the approaches level, where the large majority of students tested passed, though the share reaching the higher tiers remains modest. Social studies falls somewhere between the other subjects. An earlier data point from grade eight testing, which appears in the record because Highlands at some point had eighth-grade students, showed similarly low proficiency across all four subjects at that time. A parent wondering about college readiness and academic preparation should ask the school directly what intervention supports and course pathways are in place, because the tested-proficiency picture here warrants a closer conversation.
Graduation rate data was not available in what was provided, so it is not possible to characterize how students move through to completion.
The district context matters for understanding Highlands. San Antonio ISD has been managing significant structural change. In late 2023, the board voted to close a large group of campuses and redesign others, a move driven by long-running enrollment decline, and publicly reported accounts indicate that a meaningful share of students affected by those closures did not return to the district. Highlands itself remains open, but the landscape of neighboring schools and feeder patterns has shifted. At the same time, the district has been overhauling curriculum districtwide, moving away from campus-by-campus variation in math and reading toward a common guaranteed curriculum, and aligning literacy instruction to a phonics-based, science-of-teaching-reading approach. For families with younger children moving into the pipeline, that shift is worth tracking. A major bond measure passed a few years back is also funding facility renovations across dozens of campuses, and work on various sites has continued into the recent school year.
Program offerings for Highlands were not available in the data provided, so it is not possible to say whether the school offers AP courses, dual credit, career and technical pathways, or extracurricular programming beyond what a parent would learn by contacting the campus directly.
San Antonio itself is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with the metro publicly reported to have added more residents than any other U.S. metropolitan area in a recent year. The inner-city zip codes around Highlands are not the growth edge, which is concentrated on the suburban periphery, but the city's investment in transit, the ongoing bond-funded campus improvements, and a relatively accessible housing market make this part of San Antonio worth understanding on its own terms. For a family evaluating Highlands, the honest question is whether the school's academic supports and any specialized programs match what their student needs, and that answer requires a direct visit and conversation with the campus.
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