Every school district tries to prepare students for additional education after high school.
In 1996, the last year for which data are available, more than 125,000 Texas students, slightly less than two-thirds of those eligible to take either exam, took either the SAT, the ACT, or both. In general, HISD students are performing well, as evidenced by SAT and ACT scores, TAAS achievement test results, and advanced placement test results. For the graduating classes from 1994 to 1996, over 90 percent of the graduates took the SAT, the ACT, or both. For the class of 1996, the mean SAT score of 1,296 was the highest among HISD's peer districts, and the ACT mean score of 22.3 was second only to Early's 22.6 mean score. The averages for the state were 993 on the SAT and 20.1 on the ACT, and the averages for RESC XII were 987 and 20.1, respectively.