Spring Branch ISD Schools: A Houston Parent's Guide

Spring Branch ISD anchors the Spring Branch area in northwest Houston, and the district's four comprehensive high schools — Memorial, Stratford, Spring Woods, and Northbrook — plus Westchester Academy for International Studies, its grades 6-12 International Baccalaureate choice campus, define how families think about every street, every subdivision, and every house in the market. SBISD serves roughly 35,000 students across four traditional high schools, eight middle schools, twenty-four elementary schools, and four pre-K centers, alongside its choice campuses. Memorial High School ranks 104th among Texas high schools in U.S. News's listing.

Each high school feeds from a distinct cluster of middle and elementary campuses. Here is what each feeder pattern looks like and how families navigate it.

Memorial High School (9-12)

Memorial HS at 935 Echo Lane served about 2,640 students in 2023-24, drawn from across the Memorial villages, including Hedwig Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hilshire Village, Spring Valley Village, and portions of Hunters Creek Village and Piney Point Village. The campus runs advanced math and science alongside a deep AP roster. The Mustangs' strongest athletic programs historically are tennis, with multiple state championships, and girls' soccer, which took the state title in 2018.

Feeder middle schools are Memorial Middle, Spring Branch Middle, and Landrum Middle, each feeding partially. Feeder elementaries include Frostwood, Bunker Hill, Hunters Creek, Memorial Drive, and Valley Oaks. Almost every Memorial family moves into the zone for the schools and stays through high school graduation.

Stratford High School (9-12)

Stratford HS at 14555 Fern serves about 2,000 students drawn from the western half of the district, including Westchester, Nottingham Forest, Wilchester, Gaywood, Yorkshire, and the SBISD portions of Thornwood and Ashford Forest. The campus runs an honors and AP track with a broad Advanced Placement roster. The Spartans field 13 sports and keep a long-running rivalry with Memorial. Feeder middle schools are Spring Forest Middle and, partially, Memorial Middle; feeder elementaries include Meadow Wood, Nottingham, Thornwood, and Wilchester.

Spring Woods High School (9-12)

Spring Woods HS at 2045 Gessner Road served about 2,070 students in 2023-24, in the central Spring Branch area north of I-10. The student body is among the district's most diverse. Feeder middle schools are Spring Woods Middle, Spring Oaks Middle, and Spring Branch Middle, each feeding partially; feeder elementaries include Shadow Oaks, Spring Branch, Westwood, Woodview, and portions of Pine Shadows, Sherwood, and Terrace.

Northbrook High School (9-12)

Northbrook HS at 1 Raider Circle, opened in 1974, serves the northwest part of the district. The campus offers Advanced Placement coursework alongside foreign languages, athletics, and fine arts, and its teams compete as the Ragin' Raiders in maroon and silver. Northbrook draws from the most Hispanic and immigrant-heavy parts of Spring Branch. Feeder middle schools are Northbrook Middle and, partially, Landrum Middle and Spring Woods Middle; feeder elementaries include Buffalo Creek, Cedar Brook, Edgewood, Hollibrook, Ridgecrest, Spring Shadows, and portions of Housman, Pine Shadows, and Terrace.

Westchester Academy for International Studies (6-12)

WAIS at 901 Yorkchester is SBISD's International Baccalaureate continuum campus, authorized for the Middle Years, Career-related, and Diploma Programmes across grades 6 through 12; enrollment was about 830 in 2021-22. Entry is through SBISD's district-wide Choice application, and students typically apply in fifth grade for a sixth-grade seat, then continue into the Diploma Programme in high school. Admission is not decided on grades, test scores, or an interview: once a student meets the basic eligibility criteria, seats are assigned by computerized lottery, with priority for siblings of enrolled students and children of SBISD employees. Applications routinely outnumber seats, so a waitlist number is a common outcome. The full IB diploma is the academic spine of the program.

How magnet and choice admissions work

SBISD runs several Choice programs that admit students through a district-wide application, including WAIS for the IB continuum in grades 6-12 and Cornerstone Academy for IB in grades 6-8. Zoned students are enrolled automatically at their neighborhood schools. Choice seats are filled by computerized lottery rather than by grades, test scores, or essays — once a student meets the basic eligibility criteria, everyone in the pool has an equal chance, with priority for siblings and the children of district employees. The cycle runs on a fixed calendar: for 2026-27 the application opened November 3, 2025 and closed January 9, 2026, with the lottery run January 27 and results released February 6. Check the current year's dates on the SBISD Choice page before planning around them. For a wider look at the Spring Branch lifestyle that surrounds the schools, see our Living in Spring Branch guide.

Private school alternatives

A smaller share of Spring Branch families enroll at nearby private schools: The Kinkaid School in Piney Point Village, Awty International School off Old Katy Road, Memorial Lutheran School on Westheimer Road, Second Baptist School, and Episcopal High School in Bellaire. For 2026-27, Kinkaid lists $32,110 for grades PK-4, $37,620 for 5-8, and $38,960 for 9-12; confirm current rates and fees with each school.

Commute and logistics

SBISD is compact enough that most addresses sit a short drive from their zoned high school. Carpool lines on Memorial Drive, Bunker Hill, and Gessner build between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. Darrell Tully Stadium at 1050 Dairy Ashford is the shared SBISD home football stadium, seating roughly 12,000, and hosts varsity home games for all four comprehensive high schools. METRO bus service runs along Long Point and Westview but is rarely used for school commutes — our METRO Houston guide covers public-transit options, and the I-10 navigation guide covers commute timing for parents driving east toward the Texas Medical Center or west toward the Energy Corridor.

How schools affect home value

School zoning weighs heavily on Spring Branch resale value, and the attendance line between the Memorial and Spring Woods zones is the one buyers watch most closely. The size of that gap moves with the market, so the only reliable way to measure it is to pull recent paired comparables on either side of the specific boundary you care about rather than relying on a headline percentage.

Families also check the FEMA flood map for any address before making an offer, since a few streets near Buffalo Bayou and Spring Branch Creek can flood in heavy storms. Our Houston flood zones map shows where the higher-risk areas lie inside SBISD.