Original Research by School Decision on Lyndon B Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson High School sits on Cielito Lindo Boulevard in the southwestern part of Laredo, a rapidly growing border city whose economy runs on international trade through what is publicly reported as the top inland port on the U.S.-Mexico border. The school is part of United ISD, one of four districts in Webb County, and serves students in grades nine through twelve.
The school is large for a high school, with enrollment spread fairly evenly across all four grade levels. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, reflecting Laredo's demographics, and nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning this is a high-poverty campus by any measure. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
State assessment results from the most recent year show a mixed picture. The share of students reaching the basic "approaches grade level" standard is high in science and social studies, solid in math, and lower in ELA. The picture shifts when you look at the "meets grade level" standard, which Texas treats as the stronger benchmark for college readiness: math sits below the majority of test-takers, ELA is close to half, science is above average, and social studies is around half. At the highest "masters" tier, rates are modest across all subjects, with science the strongest and ELA the lowest. Because only one year of data was available, there is no trend line to assess whether performance is rising or falling, and a parent may want to ask the school directly about trajectory and any improvement initiatives underway.
No comparison against other Webb County districts was possible from what was provided, because the school-level proficiency index, graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism rate were each marked as not applicable for this entity in the county comparison set. A graduation rate for LBJ specifically was not available in the data, which is a meaningful gap for a family weighing this school's outcomes. Enrollment-level course access, AP or dual-credit program listings, staffing ratios, and attendance data were also absent.
What the district brief adds: United ISD publicly reported a reduction in its Maintenance and Operations property tax rate, which matters for homebuyers in the district. The district also launched a new early childhood program and introduced a district-wide literacy initiative focused on grade-level reading, which signals that reading comprehension is a named instructional priority. How those district-level efforts translate to LBJ specifically is not something the available data can answer.
Laredo itself is a predominantly Hispanic, family-oriented city that has posted consistent population growth for decades. Most of the city requires a car; walkability is strong only in a few central neighborhoods, and the school's location in the southwestern part of the city is very much in the auto-dependent tier. The housing market here is considerably more affordable than the Texas statewide median, and prices have seen modest appreciation recently rather than the statewide softening. For families with school-age children, the city's growth is pushing new residential development northward and eastward, with a large master-planned community now in its first phase to the north.
LBJ is a large neighborhood high school in a high-poverty, predominantly Hispanic border city. Its test scores show that most students clear the minimum bar, but a smaller fraction reach the stronger college-readiness threshold, particularly in ELA. Families who want to understand the full academic pathway here, including what advanced coursework exists, how graduates fare in college placement, and what support systems are in place for students who need acceleration or intervention, will need to go directly to the school, because that detail was not in the data available.
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