These 12 Schools Are The Worst In Amarillo

If you have kids in the Amarillo and Canyon area, you know how important it is. Making sure that your kids are safe, and learning so they can further themselves in life.

School. Some people choose where they live strictly based on how good the schools in the area are. They look at the zoning for the schools and decide to find a house in that area, whether it's exactly what they're looking for or not.

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Makes perfect sense if you ask me. I'm a parent, and when we first moved here, we kind of had to rush to find a place to live. We weren't in a position to choose what we wanted, we just had to take what was available. Unfortunately, it put us in a zone we didn't want to be in.

As we get ready to move houses, we were able to get in a spot we wanted for our kids when it came to school. It also got me to look into the different school grades the state had given them.

These school grades are based on these factors:

Percent of Students Economically Disadvantaged
Student Achievement Goals
Campus Performance
Growth
College Readiness

Below you'll find a list of the worst schools in the Amarillo ISD and Canyon ISD systems based on the cumulation of these grades. All the schools below received a grade of D+ or worse.

We'll start with the elementary schools that received low grades.

HUMPHREY'S HIGHLAND ELEMENTARY

Highland received a D+ overall. Its student achievement goals and campus performance weren't terrible as both of those categories received a C grade.

What hurt Highland was its growth rate. It pulled down an F for growth which means the school is rapidly growing and it can't sustain the smaller classes that allow that one-on-one interaction between student and teacher.

SAN JACINTO ELEMENTARY

Next on our list is San Jacinto checking in with a D grade. There wasn't one specific thing that brought their score down to a D, it was a combination of things.

94% of the students at San Jacinto fell into the economically challenged category, and they received a D grade across the board for student achievement goals, campus performance, and growth.

SANBORN ELEMENTARY

Up next is Sanborn Elementary. They also received an overall D grade, and much like San Jacinto, it wasn't tied to one particular thing.

They mirrored San Jacinto in everything except the percent of economically challenged students, where they checked in with 91% of their students in that category.

LAWNDALE ELEMENTARY

Lawndale checks in also with an overall grade of D. Another school that didn't have a specific thing bringing its score down, it was even across the board.

84% of their students fall into the economically disadvantaged category, and they received a D grade for student achievement goals, growth, and campus performance.

OAKDALE ELEMENTARY

In what seems to be a trend at this point, Oakdale also checks in with an overall D grade for their facility.

Just like the last few on the list, they received a grade of D across the board, but so far have the lowest percentage of economically disadvantaged students at just shy of 79%.

HAMLET ELEMENTARY

The one and only Amarillo area elementary school to receive a failing grade, Hamlet comes in with that dreaded F.

With nearly 93% of its students considered economically disadvantaged, the school received an F in all the categories listed above.

Three other elementary schools in the Texas Panhandle received an F, and they were in Dimmitt, Hereford, and Tulia.

Moving on to the middle schools, we find less on the list, but partially because there are fewer middle schools than elementary.

BOWIE MIDDLE SCHOOL

The overall grade for Bowie came in as a D+. They did however have a category that picked up a C grade and no doubt helps bring it closer to at least pulling a C-.

That category was campus performance, which is a good thing to see. It means the students are at least somewhat engaged and working on pulling down decent grades. They received a D in student achievement goals and growth. They also have 81% of their students in the economically disadvantaged category.

TRAVIS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Working down the list a bit, Travis Middle School checked in with a flat D grade. This one was interesting to look at as grades were all over the board.

Travis received a D for student achievement goals, a C for campus performance, but an F for growth. Students seem to be performing at an average level, but that could all change if the growth doesn't slow down at Travis. One other factor hurting their grade is the fact that 90% of its students fall in the economically challenged category.

HOUSTON MIDDLE SCHOOL

We've now covered the run on all the possible D grades as Houston checks in with a D- overall grade.

Garnering D grades in campus performance and student achievement goals, along with that dreaded F for growth gives us a bad recipe for these students getting what they need to succeed.

FANNIN MIDDLE SCHOOL

Sadly, we ended up with two schools picking up an overall grade of D- as Fannin was also found on the list.

Fannin's grades were the same as Houston's but had fewer students falling into the economically disadvantaged category with 72% of its students in it. That's 11% lower than Houston.

No middle schools were receiving an overall grade of F, and the only one I could find in the Texas Panhandle area garnering an F was found in Tulia.

Now onto the high schools, where the college readiness score comes into play. We found two high schools in the area that received a grade lower than C-.

TASCOSA HIGH SCHOOL

The Rebels find themselves on the precipice of finding their way into the C grade category, but for now, they check in with a D+ overall grade.

As I looked at their grades, I found something very interesting. They received D grades in student achievement and growth, and an F in campus performance. Those seem to add up to be a D overall, however, what got them that plus sign was the fact they received a B grade in college readiness.

PALO DURO HIGH SCHOOL

Our final high school landing on the list is Palo Duro. The Dons picked up an overall grade of D, and unlike Tascosa, it didn't have that glimmer of hope.

Picking up a D grade for student achievement, growth, and campus performance makes it easy to see how they managed a D overall grade, but there was one extremely concerning category. That was the college readiness score where PD picked up an F.

They were also relatively high in economically challenged students sitting just a shade under 80% of their students falling in that category.