Leander High School

3301 South Bagdad Road

School District

Leander Independent
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:15
Type

public

School Map for Leander Independent School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on April 30, 2024

School teachers and staff is good. Sports is good.
Submitted by parent on May 26, 2023

Penrod is a bully. 1.9 star rated school huh? Great job Penrod
Submitted by student on May 16, 2023

Going to this school has been the most unsatisfactory experience in my life. Like others have said, it's full of cockroaches, vape addicts, and drug abusers. The facilities are subpar; there are missing stall doors in the restrooms and half the soap dispensers don't work, apparently the janitors are too lazy or understaffed to do anything about it. Most teachers don't explain the subject material properly, or they just play educational YouTube videos because they can't be bothered to get out of their swivel chair and do anything. Substitutes are treated like baby sitters and allow students to behave like wild animals while they look at their phones. Don't even get me started on the poor performance of our sports teams.
Submitted by student on September 22, 2022

As a student currently in this high school, I can speak on behalf of around 95% of students here when I say it is a very unpleasant place. There are immense amounts of violence, drug usage (hard drugs as well), horrible bullying, what I can only describe as "gang" violence. For the most part we have very kind and loving teachers and our principle is one of the most amazing leaders I've ever met. However that does not make up for the poor safety conditions and extremely confusing and horrendous curriculums. We are lacking important teachers such as language teachers. In one instance we have a French teacher in our ASL (American sign language) teacher. I've seen more than 20+ students drop this class before the first 6 weeks is even over. I am overly cautious of stepping on cockroaches that seem as if they mutated, I mean these roaches are huge.- I get bruises every single day in school because of the horrible schedule and release timing. If I could add photos I would love to show the yellow and black, green and blue, purple and black bruises all on my arms and upper chest. I am 5'1 which puts me in a dangerous spot. It's a game of human dodgeball and if you're unlucky then it's human bumper cars. You learn to accept getting body slammed by people 2x your height and weight in the hall if it means getting to class on time.The most unpleasant part is getting INTO the school if you're so much as 30 seconds late. There are videos of masses of students, 40+ students, stuck outside in the heat battling to get inside to get a late pass with accurate timing. Got to school at 8:17 (two minutes late) and finally got into the school at 8:25 after being outside the entire time in almost 90°F weather.My final thoughts on all of this are, this is an unsafe place (physically), unhealthy place (mentally), and academically behind place of learning.I used advanced spell check for this entire thing. However spell check just broke so that's very unfortunate. I'm almost two grades behind in some of my strongest classes because of the learning system.However, 1/5 stars, I highly do not recommend.
Submitted by other on August 21, 2022

I have known family who attended this school.
Submitted by parent on May 14, 2022

Kids are very respectful. Teachers invest in needs of students.
Submitted by student on January 05, 2020

As an IB student, I feel I am very prepared for college. They IB faculty does an amazing job from a teaching perspective but I feel that the rigor of the program has unfortunately given some teachers a bad reputation. If you are planning on taking IB and are aware of the complexities of the program, this is a great school faculty wise. If you stick with the program, this school overall is fairly good.
Submitted by student on August 04, 2019

I am currently a student and its not a great school. I am also a part of the IB program and it is worth being in. The band is insanely good and is worth going to this school for. But if not don't go.
Submitted by parent on July 08, 2018

ParentOverall experienceOur oldest son graduated from the IB program at LHS last year. The IB program felt on par with a basic honors program at most other public schools, so that was very disappointing. Some teachers at school were good, but others went above and beyond to destroy opportunities for kids in everything from sports to academics. After hearing about the students assembling to protest against some of the teachers at the end of the school year, I think it was a good thing. Part of me thinks they went too far by making AP Meyers cry, but she shouldn't have treated those students like that. Then there was the news that LHS was unranked in Newsweek's 2016 list of top high schools in Texas! How a school that has an IB program that's supposedly up to standards but still can't get ranked it beyond understanding. Every sports program at LHS struggles with finishing the season with at least 1 win, but some of the sports seasons end with 0 wins and all losses. The campus looks nice, but that's not enough to persuade me to enroll our other children there.
Submitted by parent on November 07, 2016

The football coach shows favoritism toward children whose parents donate more money. The more money your parents have the more you get coddled and babied by the head coach. These football players bully and threaten other children, coach looks away. The athletics department is a joke here. They discriminate against children who aren't as fortunate enough as others.
Submitted by parent on August 18, 2016

Our oldest son graduated from the IB program at LHS last year. The IB program felt on par with a basic honors program at most other public schools, so that was very disappointing. Some teachers at school were good, but others went above and beyond to destroy opportunities for kids in everything from sports to academics. After hearing about the students assembling to protest against some of the teachers at the end of the school year, I think it was a good thing. Part of me thinks they went too far by making AP Meyers cry, but she shouldn't have treated those students like that. Then there was the news that LHS was unranked in Newsweek's 2016 list of top high schools in Texas! How a school that has an IB program that's supposedly up to standards but still can't get ranked it beyond understanding. Every sports program at LHS struggles with finishing the season with at least 1 win, but some of the sports seasons end with 0 wins and all losses. The campus looks nice, but that's not enough to persuade me to enroll our other children there.
Submitted by other on March 31, 2016

My husband and I have been community volunteers here for years. Sadly we have watched the school and its students and faculty decay into what it has become now. In interacting with the students there used to be a sense of pride in them, but it seemingly has now been replaced by embarrassment. We noticed this change a few years ago and were hoping it would be temporary but it seems to have only gotten worse. We will not be sending our grandchildren to Leander High.
Submitted by parent on February 21, 2016

My childrens' middle school had larger class sizes and fewer administrative staff and fewer school counselors and still wasn't as mismanaged as this school. The administration does a terrible job of communication and lacks critical organization skills. My oldest daughters middle school told me they gave up after a week of trying to get in touch with Leander staff to verify they received some of her records. This was the middle schools second attempt since Leander said it "must have done got lost in the hustle and bustle". That should have been my first hint. I really think the school is trying as hard as they can, but bless their little hearts its just too much for them to handle. I'm hoping they will be lucky enough to get a lottery transfer to Vandegrift or Vista Ridge.
Submitted by other on February 09, 2016

I can't take anything at this school seriously. Their academics are the weakest in the area, their sports teams are flat out terrible, and the students always look like they just got out of bed. And seriously what's with the participation ribbons in the trophy case? My daughters are so disappointed they can't transfer to VandeGrift or Vista Ridge.
Submitted by other on February 09, 2016

This is the most depressing school I have ever been around. I wish there was another school I could transfer my daughter to.
Submitted by parent on January 26, 2016

Our family is very disappointed in the school's quality of education. Exceptionally low academic standards.
Submitted by parent on January 22, 2016

This school struggles to excel in anything. Both of my boys were so disappointed by their experiences that I withdrew them 2 years ago and enrolled at another school. They chose a sports program instead of PE credit at Leander. I didn't realize the sports program was so demanding. It wouldn't have been so bad except they lost every single game. It was so bad seeing the disappointed looks on the kids faces before the games even started! The education was mediocre at best. Both of my sons got 94% and above in their AP classes but did badly on the AP tests because they were tested over subjects that weren't covered in class. At their new school, they got 5's on both AP tests last year. The people and the school are really nice, but it is an incredibly low self esteem school. They need to win at something to get some confidence in their kids.
Submitted by parent on December 10, 2015

Its a fairly large school for being in a partly rural area. After moving from a much larger school in Austin, I was shocked at how teachers and counselors struggle with communication. I left multiple voicemails/emails and never received a response. Another telling sign of the schools lack of accomplishments are their very bare trophy cases. I have never seen a school actually hang a participation ribbon in their school's trophy show case until now. Multiple particpation ribbons to be exact. The people are mostly friendly and I feel they have good hearts, they are just very inefficient and things go at a much much slower pace out here. I've been on the school grounds a few times during school hours and all the kids seemed tired or depressed. I know they're teens in highschool, but this is very different from my sons previous school which was full of life and energy. The school struggles in nearly every sport. They lost every football game in the 2014 season but somehow the head football coach of that season is now in charge of athletics in the school. I hoped this school to be so much more than it is.
Submitted by parent on April 09, 2015

my daughter had an awesome experience here amazing school district awesome teachers and great kids.