Schools are the reason a large share of Southlake buyers are in Southlake. So the single most useful thing I can tell you about them is not the ratings. It is that a Southlake address does not guarantee a Carroll ISD address, and the city itself publishes the numbers that prove it.
We will get to that. First, the part everyone asks about.
The Texas Education Agency released its 2026 A–F accountability ratings on 14 August 2026, covering 1,202 districts and 9,105 campuses.
The district reports an overall 93 out of 100 for 2026. Ratings are refreshed every August, so pull the current year yourself rather than trusting any blog — including this one. The official report is at txschools.gov under district 220919, or through TEA’s accountability report search.
The district also reports winning the UIL Lone Star Cup nine times, most recently with what it describes as the most points in 6A history, and Carroll Senior High recently produced 32 National Merit Semifinalists.
Almost everyone assumes Carroll was a founding family who owned land here. They were not.
The Texas Historical Commission marker at the old Carroll School says it plainly: in 1917, Tarrant County commissioners combined the area’s one-room schools into Common School District No. 99, “later named for county superintendent of public instruction B.E. Carroll.”
B.E. Carroll came to Texas from Tennessee in 1898 with his wife and daughter, and became Tarrant County Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1918. His granddaughter’s description of him, via the Historical Society: “He spent his life as a teacher and principal in most of the small towns across Tarrant County.” The district was renamed in his honor in 1919.
So the most prestigious school district name in northeast Tarrant County belongs to a career county educator, not a landowner. I find that a better story.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1847 | Dove School begins — one of the earliest in Tarrant County |
| 1917 | Lonesome Dove, White’s Chapel, east Sams and Union schools consolidated into District No. 99 |
| 1919 | Renamed Carroll. A $7,500 bond passes 29 to 25 at White’s Chapel Methodist Church. Three-room brick school opens: 3 teachers, 97 students, 9 grades |
| 1956 | The schoolhouse hosts the vote that creates the City of Southlake, then serves as town hall |
| 1959 | Voters create Carroll Independent School District. Jack D. Johnson named superintendent |
| 1963 | First Carroll High School opens; district wins its first state title, in one-act play |
| 1965 | First senior class graduates — 24 students |
| 1970 | Carroll High School and Dragon Stadium open at Dove and Carroll |
| 2001 | The original 1919 Carroll School closes |
Sixty-one years from a 24-member graduating class to a district of more than 8,100 students.
Eleven campuses across roughly 21 square miles, all of it in Tarrant County. If you are wondering why that is a square mile short of the city’s own twenty-two: the district and the city are not the same shape, which is the whole point of the section below.
The two-tier high school structure was approved by voters in 1996 — ninth and tenth grade at one campus, eleventh and twelfth at the other. It surprises people moving in from districts with a single four-year high school.
Carroll ISD does not cover all of Southlake. The City publishes an approximate split, and read the column heading carefully, because this matters:
| District | Share of city area |
|---|---|
| Carroll ISD | 78% |
| Northwest ISD | 10% |
| Keller ISD | 7% |
| Grapevine-Colleyville ISD | 5% |
So roughly 22 percent of Southlake’s land area sits in three other districts. And here is the distinction I want to be careful about: that is a share of the map, not a share of the houses. The non-Carroll portions are the city’s edges — larger lots, lower density, some of it not residential at all — so the share of actual homes outside Carroll is almost certainly smaller than 22 percent. Nobody publishes that number. Which is precisely why you verify the address rather than the percentage.
Here is what I can verify about each district, from the districts themselves:
Carroll ISD says it serves more than 8,100 students across 11 campuses with about 1,000 employees. Federal data for 2024–25 puts enrollment at 8,105.
District demographic reporting has projected continued decline from here — into the low seven thousands over the next several years. Demographer projections get revised annually, so treat the direction as the finding and ask the district for the current year’s numbers if you need them.
That is not a quality signal, it is an arithmetic one, and it follows directly from what I wrote about in the city’s history: Southlake is built out. Population went from 2,808 in 1980 to 21,519 in 2000, and has been flat since 2020. The houses built in the nineties boom were filled by young families who are now empty nesters in the same houses. Fewer children per household in a city with no room for new subdivisions means a smaller district.
Practically, for a buyer: falling enrollment usually means smaller classes and less pressure on facilities, and it can mean boundary or campus changes down the road. Worth asking the district about if you are buying for a specific campus.
Four, per the federal Private School Universe Survey, with 2023–24 enrollment:
| School | Grades | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|
| The Clariden School | PK–12 | 173 |
| Fusion Academy Southlake | 5–12 | 72 |
| Primrose School at Hidden Lakes | PK–K | 155 |
| Spanish Schoolhouse | PK–K | 128 |
Listed because they exist, not as recommendations. The federal locator’s own disclaimer applies: inclusion does not constitute an endorsement.
I am happy to do the first two for you on any address you are considering. It takes me a phone call and it has changed people’s minds about a house more than once.
Looking at a specific Southlake address? Send it to me and I will confirm which district and which campus actually serve it, in writing, before you fall in love with the house. About 22 percent of this city's land area is not Carroll ISD, and the listing will not always tell you which part.
Have me check an addressChecked September 2026. Where local sources disagree on a date or a figure I have said so in the text rather than quietly picking one. Tax rates, school ratings and boundaries all change — verify anything you are relying on with the city, the district or the appraisal district.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.