Comparing schools

How to compare two Houston schools: checklist and tour questions

By the research team at School, Clearly.

AI-assisted research. Our method.

District, state and program pages read September 9, 2026. Every dated rule carries its school year.

At a glance

Put the two schools in one table, row by row, on the things that decide whether the year works: the school day and who covers the afternoon, the drive or the bus, what the year costs after fees and any award, the rule that gets your child in, the date that closes the door, and what the state publishes about each. Fill both columns from each school's own pages and from the tour, write unknown where you cannot find the answer, and the comparison usually makes itself. This page is the method. It names no school and ranks nothing, because the row that decides it is different for every family.

Before the table: three things to settle first

A comparison only works when both columns are measured against the same family. So before opening either school's website, write three things down. The hard limits: the latest pickup your household can manage on a normal day, the most the year can cost, and anything that ends the conversation on its own, such as a language your child needs or a sibling who has to be at the same campus. The child in everyday words: what a good day looks like, what a bad one looks like, and what the current school gets right or wrong. And the decision you are actually making, which is usually one of four: finding options for the first time, considering a change from a school that is not working, comparing two offers already in hand, or moving to Houston and choosing a school and an address together.

Those three notes turn a vague sense that one school feels better into a list of rows where one school is better for you. They are also the rows this page cannot fill in, because they are yours.

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The fit checklist: ten rows, two columns

Make a table with one column per school and the ten rows below. The middle column says where the answer usually lives; the last says what to write. Public and charter schools charge no tuition, so several rows are shorter for them, but every row applies to every school. Where a rule below carries a date or a year, it comes from the district, state or program page read September 9, 2026, and the linked guide holds the full version.

Row	Where to look	What to write down for each school
The school day	The campus page or the front office, for start time, dismissal time and the earliest drop-off the school supervises. Pre-K and elementary days often end well before a work day does, and a magnet or charter campus across town adds its drive to both ends.	Start time, dismissal time, earliest supervised drop-off, and the gap between dismissal and the pickup your household can actually make. If the gap is more than a few minutes, the next row decides whether this school is possible at all.
Aftercare	The campus, because the district's pages do not describe it. Ask who runs the program (the school, a contractor or a nearby provider), the last pickup time, the monthly cost, whether pre-K and kindergarten children are accepted, and whether there is a waitlist for the coming year.	Provider, last pickup, monthly cost, ages accepted, and whether a place for the target year can be confirmed before you accept a seat. Write unknown rather than assumed, and treat an unconfirmed aftercare place as a hard limit: a school day that ends before the work day does is not a workable year until someone covers the gap.
Getting there	For an HISD school of choice, the district's School Choice transportation page (2026-27 wording, read September 9, 2026): a bus needs a home at least two miles from the school and one of the listed transfer codes, stops may be three miles or more from home, no bus comes with Space Available, Dual Language, or Hardship codes, and the district does not transport Pre-K 3 or Pre-K 4 students unless an IEP (an Individualized Education Program, the public school special education plan) or 504 plan provides it. Each charter network has its own rule, on our charter schools list. A private school's transport, if any, is on its own page or from its office.	Whether a bus exists for your address and grade, where the stop would be, and the drive time at drop-off and at pickup, measured at those hours rather than at noon. For a two-parent household, whose commute each leg falls on.
What it costs	A public or charter school charges no tuition; ask about uniforms, activity fees and aftercare. A private school's tuition page, by grade, plus its fee schedule, deposit and enrollment contract. Whether the school takes part in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program is on the program's finder, and its 2026-27 award for an approved private school was $10,474 per child, with participation requiring accreditation by an organization the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission or the Texas Education Agency recognizes; our TEFA guide has the program and the calculator the net figure for a dated twenty-six-school sample.	Tuition for your child's grade and year, fees, deposit and its refund terms, aftercare, and a total with and without any award, since the award is not confirmed until the state confirms it. Public: fees and aftercare only. Mark every figure with the school year it belongs to.
The entry rule	HISD's magnet page sorts campuses into three types (Separate and Unique, School Wide Program, School Within a School) that decide who must apply, and its eligibility page lists the programs that add an entrance requirement: an academic matrix, an audition, Montessori experience, or Gifted and Talented identification for Vanguard. Our HISD magnet list prints the rule for twenty campuses. A charter network runs its own lottery when demand exceeds seats; a private school runs its own admissions checklist by grade.	Whether your child can be admitted at all this cycle, the requirement if there is one, and whether the school serves the grade your child is entering as a new student. A school that teaches a grade does not always take new students into it.
The deadline	For an HISD magnet, the district's dates page: for 2027-28, Phase 1 runs December 8, 2026 to February 12, 2027 with lottery notifications on March 17, 2027, in our HISD magnet application guide; pre-K runs on its own calendar, in our HISD pre-K guide. Charter windows differ by network; private deadlines differ by school and by grade, often earlier for pre-K and kindergarten.	The application window, the notification date, the acceptance deadline and the deposit date, each with its year. Then the same for the other school, so you can see whether one asks you to commit before the other has answered.
Language of instruction	The campus page. HISD offers English-only, transitional bilingual and dual language models, with dual language programs in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin and French at particular campuses, and a language program can carry its own entry rule. A private school states its own.	The language your child will be taught in, whether a second language is a program or a class, and whether the school assesses the child's language on entry.
Support needs	The school's special education or learning support page, and a conversation with the person who runs it. A public school, including a charter, is bound by federal and state special education law; the state's education savings account page carries a notice that a private school is not subject to those laws in the same manner. Ask a private school what it provides in writing.	What the school provides for the need you have described, who provides it, whether it costs extra, and whether a current plan or evaluation transfers. Write what the school said and who said it.
What the state publishes	For a public or charter campus, the Texas Education Agency publishes an A-F rating and a school report card on TXschools.gov; the section below explains what the rating measures. A private school has no state rating, and a private school's own figures are its own. Read the rating as one input about academics, and read the school day rows first, because a rating cannot tell you who is picking your child up at 3:15.	The current overall rating and the year it belongs to, the component that pulls it down if one does, and what the school says it is doing about it. For a private school, what evidence it offers instead and whether you were allowed to see it.
Your current seat	The district's dates page says an HISD application does not give up a current seat until a new one is accepted. For a charter or private school, the point at which accepting commits you is in its own enrollment terms: ask whether a deposit is required, when it stops being refundable, and what withdrawing costs, before you sign.	What accepting this school costs you at the other, what you lose if you change your mind, and the last date on which changing your mind is free.

Two rows can end the comparison on their own. The afternoon and the money are hard limits you set before the table, so check those rows against your limits first; a school that fails either one does not need the other eight filled in. Fill the whole table anyway for the school that passes, because the remaining rows are where the tour questions come from.

What to ask on the tour

A tour answers what a website cannot: how the day feels, what the staff say when a question is specific, and which of your unknowns the school can turn into a fact. Take the table with you and ask in its order. The questions below are grouped by the part of the year they belong to, and each one ends in something you can write in a cell.

The day

What time does supervised drop-off begin, and what time is dismissal for this grade? Is there a shorter day on any weekday?
Who runs aftercare, until what time, and what does it cost per month? Is a place for next year confirmed at enrollment or by a separate application?
For a school of choice or a charter: for my address, is there a bus, where is the stop, and how long is the ride? For pre-K, who drives?
What happens on a day when the normal pickup fails, and who does the school call?

The classroom

How many children are in this grade's classrooms this year, and how many adults are in the room?
What language is instruction in, and if there is a second language, is it a program the child enters or a class the child attends?
When a child struggles academically or socially, who notices, who contacts the family, what support starts, and when is progress reviewed? How does this change for a child ahead in one subject and behind in another?
For the support need I have described, what exactly is provided, by whom, and is any of it billed separately?
How do adults respond to exclusion, bullying or a classroom disagreement? Can you walk us through the response without identifying a child, and show us the written policy?
Which religious classes, worship, prayer or other activities are required in this grade? What participation is expected from a child of another faith or none, and are any alternatives available in writing?
In later grades, what changes in campus, homework, class grouping, support, religious participation or re-enrollment requirements? Which changes should we plan for now?

The money

For a private school: what is tuition for this grade for the target year, what fees are added, and when is the deposit due and refundable until?
Does the school take part in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, and if an award is not confirmed by the deposit date, what happens to the deposit?
For any school: what did a family pay last year beyond tuition, for uniforms, trips, activities and aftercare?

The path in

Is there space in this grade for a new student next year, and is that seat decided by a lottery, an assessment, an audition or a file review?
When does the application close, when will we hear, and how long do we have to accept?
If we are not offered a seat, is there a waitlist, how does it work, and when does it retire?

The way out

If we accept and then change our minds before the year starts, what do we owe and by what date is withdrawal free?
What does the school ask a family to sign, and can we read the enrollment contract before the deposit date?
For an HISD school: does accepting this seat change our child's place at the zoned school or on any other waitlist?

Reading the state rating without over-reading it

The Texas Education Agency rates every public district and campus, including open-enrollment charter campuses, on a scale from A to F, and publishes the results on TXschools.gov. Its How Accountability Ratings Work page, read September 9, 2026, says the rating rests on three domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. Student Achievement measures whether students met expectations on the STAAR test (the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) and, for high schools, graduation and readiness for college, a career or the military; School Progress measures change over time and performance relative to campuses with similar economically disadvantaged populations; Closing the Gaps measures whether every student group is succeeding. The agency's reporting and accountability page, read the same day, said the preliminary 2026 ratings were released with a statewide summary dated August 14, 2026, and its school report card page said the 2025-26 report cards, which add campus data and finances to the rating, would be available in December 2026 after final ratings.

What the rating does well is tell you how a campus's students performed on the state's measures in a given year, on the same yardstick as every other public campus. What it cannot tell you is whether a child like yours does well there, whether the afternoon works, or how a private school, which sits outside the system, would score. Write the rating and its year into the table, look at which domain moves it, and then keep reading the rows the rating does not cover. A private school with no state rating is not a school with nothing to show; ask what it offers instead and treat that evidence as the school's own.

After the tour: reading the finished table

Fill both columns the same evening, while the answers are fresh, and mark every cell the school could not answer as unknown with the name of the person you asked. Then read the table from the top. If either school fails the day, the aftercare or the money against the limits you wrote down first, the comparison is over for that school, whatever the rest of the table says. If both pass, the deciding rows are usually the entry rule and the deadline, because one school may ask you to commit before the other has answered; write that sequence down as dates. Only then compare the classroom rows, and compare them against the notes about your child, so a difference in the table has to matter to that child to count.

Keep three kinds of notes separate: what you observed on the visit, what a staff member said, and what a dated policy or schedule confirms. A calm classroom during one visit is an observation; it does not establish every day's experience. For an unanswered culture or support question, record who will follow up and ask for a concrete example or policy. Keep your child's and your own impressions too, labeled as impressions.

Two outcomes are normal. One column is clearly better for your family, and you have the reasons in writing for the partner or caregiver who was not on the tour. Or neither school passes, which is worth knowing in October rather than in August, and sends you back to the shortlist with a shorter list of things that matter. The three-way guide to magnet, charter and private applications covers what changes when your two schools sit in different systems, and our private schools list and our charter schools list carry the dated rules for forty Houston campuses.

What this page is not

It is not a ranking, and it does not tell you which of your two schools is better; the rows are the same for everyone and the answers are not. It is not a substitute for the school's own pages or the tour, which is where every cell gets filled. It is not a statement of your child's chance at either school; this page estimates none. The dated rules here can change after the day they were read, so before acting on a date or a figure, open the linked page and check it, and if something has moved, send us the link and we will correct it and date the change.

How this page works

The rows are the ones the School Decision Report is built around, in the order the report checks them: hard limits first, then the path in, then the classroom. The dated rules come from HISD's transportation, magnet, eligibility and dates pages, the state's education savings account pages and the Texas Education Agency's accountability pages, read on the date shown; everything else is a question, and a question needs no source beyond the school that answers it. Research is AI-assisted and a person reviews it before publication. No school pays us. Our method explains the checks in full.

The $195 School Decision Report fills this table for the schools your family is weighing: the day, the drive, the cost with and without an award, the entry rule and the date for each, with a post-tour comparison sheet and three questions written for each school. See if this report fits your family.