ALAMO HEIGHTS H S vs CAST STEM H S

Alamo Heights H S holds a 0.7-point overall rating advantage over CAST STEM H S, scoring 9.3/10 against 8.6/10. That gap reflects a sharper difference in state rank: Alamo Heights H S sits at #69 of 8,547 Texas high schools while CAST STEM H S ranks #580 — a spread of more than 500 positions. Both schools are in San Antonio, 12.5 miles apart, and both serve grades 9 through 12, so families are choosing between two established four-year programs with very different academic profiles and student bodies.

The clearest academic separation is in raw proficiency: Alamo Heights H S earns a 9.0/10 academic score versus CAST STEM H S's 7.1/10, a 1.9-point delta that reflects meaningful differences in tested achievement across the student population. Growth tells a tighter story — Alamo Heights H S posts a 9.9/10 growth score and CAST STEM H S posts a 9.6/10, a gap of only 0.3 points. That near-parity on growth signals that CAST STEM H S is accelerating its students at roughly the same rate as the higher-scoring school; the academic gap is largely a function of where students start, not how fast the school moves them.

The demographic divide between these two campuses is substantial. Alamo Heights H S enrolls 1,537 students compared to CAST STEM H S's 197 — nearly eight times the enrollment. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility stands at 19% at Alamo Heights H S versus 66% at CAST STEM H S, indicating that CAST STEM H S serves a significantly higher proportion of economically disadvantaged families. Student-teacher ratios are nearly identical — 12.8:1 at Alamo Heights H S and 13.1:1 at CAST STEM H S — so classroom access to teachers is comparable despite the enrollment difference.

CAST STEM H S is a specialized magnet-style campus with a focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum, which explains both its small cohort size and its strong growth numbers despite a lower incoming academic baseline. Alamo Heights H S is a comprehensive neighborhood high school with a broad course catalog, competitive athletics, and the full range of extracurricular programming typical of a large traditional campus. The specialization at CAST STEM H S draws students deliberately into an applied technical pathway; Alamo Heights H S offers breadth across academic, arts, and athletic tracks within an affluent, high-achieving district.