Important General Information About Schools
One thing that is very challenging for people to understand about the Houston-metro area is that some schools districts are very large and can have BOTH high-rated AND low-rated schools within the SAME school district. Katy ISD has over 65 schools and Fort Bend ISD (for Sugar Land TX) has over 73 schools! Naturally, with that many schools, some schools are going to be excellent and some may be low-performing. Of course, some school districts are better than others, but a home can be zoned to low-rated schools even if it is in a highly rated school district like Katy ISD. This means that you can’t focus on just a school district in your home search….you need to focus on the individual schools.
Also know that school ratings can and will fluctuate from year to year…generally moving up or down one point each year. For example, Seven Lakes HS was rated a 9 in 2017 but moved up to a 10 (on greatschools.org) in 2018. Some schools stay the same rating from year to year, but some may move up or down.
Source: https://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/districtrank.aspx
Another thing to know…a neighborhood may be zoned to multiple elementary, middle, and high schools. So you may want to live in large neighborhood like Cinco Ranch, but just know that your home may be zoned to one of eight elementary schools, six middle schools, and four high schools…depending on which part of Cinco Ranch you live. Or if you live in Cross Creek Ranch, the east side is zoned to Katy ISD but the west side is zoned to Lamar Consolidated ISD. So within the same neighborhood, you could be zoned to two different school districts!
Also know that school zones can and will change over time….especially in new home developments. For example, when Tamarron first opened, it was zoned to Katy ISD schools but quickly got rezoned to Lamar Consolidated ISD, due to over-crowding. And if a new neighborhood builds out quicker than schools are added, then you could be rezoned multiple times…and maybe to lower-performing schools than originally expected. So be very careful about choosing homes based on their current school zones! (This is why you need a local area real estate expert, like Sheila Cox,to find the right home.)
Why Schools Are Important – Even If You Don’t Have School-Aged Children
People typically move to the Katy area because of the schools. So even if you do not have school-aged children, you should try to buy a home zoned to a high-performing school. This is because the school ratings can have an impact on long-term home values. And there also seems to be a correlation between the number of sex offenders in an area and the rating of the schools…the lower the school rating, the higher the number of sex offenders. This is important because studies show that a large number of sex offenders is an indicator of higher crime rates and lower property values.
Read more:
>> There Goes the Neighborhood
>> Sex offender data threatening home values
Katy ISD
» See a list of Katy Homes for Sale Zoned to Best Schools
» See Katy ISD Info
» See Katy ISD information for newcomers
Many people move to Katy because of Katy schools and the award-winning and acclaimed school district: Katy ISD (Independent School District). Katy ISD serves over 70,000 students spread over a 180+ square mile area containing 60+ schools. As one of the largest employers in the Katy area, this school district employees over 9,000 people, including 4500+ teachers. The average teacher salary is $55,000/yr and the average student-teacher ratio is 15:1.
The ACT (American College Test) and SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores in Katy schools are above the state and national averages. In addition, most of the high schools in Katy have a 95-98 percent graduation rate. Two Katy high schools are among the top 100 high schools in the state: Cinco Ranch and Seven Lakes.
This map shows the schools by color codes according to Greatschools.org.
NOTE
“The GreatSchools Rating is on a 1-10 scale, where 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest. Ratings are broken down into three categories: ratings 1-3 signal that the school is “below average,” 4-7 indicate “average,” and 8-10 are “above average.” Ratings for these categories are shown in red, yellow and green (respectively) to help you see the distinctions.” Read More
Katy schools are in the Katy Independent School District (get more info). This map shows the elementary schools by color codes according to Greatschools.org. By this you can see that the highest scoring schools are south of I-10, in East and West Katy.
Source: https://www.greatschools.org/school-district-boundaries-map/ April 2018.
| School Lists with Current Ratings! Free 200+ guidebook contains lists of Katy schools sorted alphabetically, by type, and by rating…so you can find the best schools. |
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Schools Sorted by Area
East Katy
Generally speaking, the school on the east side of Katy (east of Grand Parkway and south of I10) are good schools (average and above-average scores). The map below shows elementary schools on GreatSchools.org. Please note that some school zones cover parts of both East and West Katy.
West Katy
The above-average schools in Katy are located in West Katy which is west of Grand Parkway and south of I10. The map below shows elementary schools on GreatSchools.org. Please note that some school zones cover parts of both East and West Katy.
The southwest side of Katy borders Richmond and a few neighborhoods, such as Tamarron, Lakes of Bella Terra, west side of Cross Creek Ranch, Long Meadow Farms, and Waterside Estates are zoned to these Lamar Consolidated Independent School District schools.
North Katy
Generally speaking, the schools north of I10 are only average-scoring schools. The map below shows elementary schools on GreatSchools.org.
Katy Elementary School Zones
To view a larger, up-to-date version of elementary schools zones go to: https://gis.katyisd.org/viewer/
Katy Middle School Zones
To view a larger, up-to-date version of middle schools zones go to: https://gis.katyisd.org/viewer/
Katy High School Zones
To view a larger, up-to-date version of high schools zones go to: https://gis.katyisd.org/viewer/
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