Best Public High Schools in Seattle
Seattle's public high schools cover an unusually wide range for a single city — from Mercer Island's island-district affluence to West Seattle's mixed working-class catchment to Ballard's gentrifying maritime corridor — and the ranking below stretches the definition of "Seattle" to include the inner suburbs that share the city's job market and labor-force demographics. Eight of the ten schools sit inside Seattle Public Schools, the second-largest district in the state; the other two are Mercer Island and Inglemoor in Kenmore.
Mercer Island, an autonomous one-high-school district on its namesake island, leads on combined measured outcomes (1323 SAT, 96 percent graduation, 77 percent SBA math). Lincoln High School, which reopened in 2019 after being shuttered since 1981, takes second; the Wallingford school's roughly hundred-million-dollar renovation reestablished it as Seattle's oldest operating high school and added capacity that has noticeably reduced overcrowding at Roosevelt and Ballard. Roosevelt itself sits at sixth — pulled down on this composite by middling SBA math (59 percent) but redeemed by its long-running jazz program (multiple Essentially Ellington wins) and a Polaris placement count that puts it among Seattle Public Schools' best feeders into Harvard, Princeton, and MIT.
Garfield, in the Central District, lands at tenth on this list despite a Polaris-leading reputation; its 39 percent SBA math proficiency drags the composite, even as the school continues to send students to top universities through its long-established Highly Capable Cohort. The pattern at Ballard (rank 9) is similar — strong AP volume and college outcomes, lower SBA proficiency than the suburban leaders. West Seattle High School, the lowest-SAT school in the top ten at 1135, is included on the basis of strong graduation and AP pass figures.
The Shoreline schools (Shorewood and Shorecrest) sit just north of Seattle's city limits and consistently land in the upper half of any Puget Sound ranking; Shoreline School District has spent the last decade investing in capital projects and aligning its IB and AP scaffolding closely. Bothell High in Northshore appears on this list because its attendance zone reaches deep into Kenmore and the Lake Forest Park edge, putting it in the same labor market as the Seattle schools.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public high schools whose attendance area falls inside the Seattle region as defined by the Atlas, ordered by a composite of SAT mean, four-year graduation rate, AP exam pass rate, and SBA proficiency drawn from OSPI's most recent Report Card. SAT means come from OSPI's annual SAT-by-school PDF. Polaris (selective-college matriculation) is shown for context. Magnet, choice, and option schools are eligible if classified as public; charter schools are eligible if listed under OSPI's charter authorizer. Private schools — Lakeside, Holy Names, Seattle Prep, Seattle Academy — appear in the parallel private-school ranking.
Ranked schools
- 001MERCER ISLAND HIGH SCHOOLMERCER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+2.85σ
- 002LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+2.22σ
- 003INGLEMOOR HSNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+2.19σ
- 004BOTHELL HIGH SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+1.91σ
- 005SHOREWOOD HIGH SCHOOLSHORELINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+1.64σ
- 006ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+1.63σ
- 007SHORECREST HIGH SCHOOLSHORELINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+1.42σ
- 008WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+0.88σ
- 009BALLARD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+0.81σ
- 010GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+0.41σ
- 011INGRAHAM HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING+0.12σ
- 012NATHAN HALE HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING-1.48σ
- 013FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING-2.17σ
- 014EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOLHIGHLINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING-2.34σ
- 015NOVA HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING-2.65σ
- 016RAINIER BEACH HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING-3.21σ
- 017RENTON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLRENTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING-4.03σ
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