Best Public High Schools in Snohomish County
Snohomish County's high schools have grown faster than any other Puget Sound county outside of King over the past two decades, and the ranking below reflects a region that has built three brand-new comprehensive high schools (North Creek, Glacier Peak, and Henry M. Jackson) since 2008 and is in the middle of another building cycle thanks to a 2020 Snohomish School District bond. The county's top schools tend to be either new-build comprehensives in suburbs that have absorbed waves of King County commuters, or established programs in the older mill and railroad towns that the county's growth has now surrounded.
North Creek High School, which opened in 2017 as the fourth comprehensive in the Northshore district, leads the list. Built on a sixty-one-acre campus straddling the Bothell-Mill Creek boundary, North Creek serves nearly 1,900 students and offers more than twenty Advanced Placement courses plus ten College in the High School courses. Glacier Peak, opened in 2008 to relieve overcrowding at Snohomish High, ranks second; the 230,000-square-foot Lydig-built campus on the Snohomish-Lake Stevens line carries a 1245 SAT mean. Lake Stevens Senior High, the comprehensive serving its rapidly suburbanizing namesake, is third — notable for cracking the top three despite a 39 percent SBA math proficiency that is the lowest in the county's top tier.
Mountlake Terrace and Meadowdale, both in the Edmonds School District, anchor the south county. Snohomish High School, the original 1894 comprehensive, posts the county's highest AP pass rate (89 percent) at rank 5. Kamiak in Mukilteo and Henry M. Jackson in Mill Creek (Everett School District) are large 2,000-plus comprehensives that lean on dual-language pathways and CTE; Jackson in particular notes a 98 percent on-time graduation rate that is the second-highest in the county.
A few notes on the data shape: the leading Snohomish County high schools cluster between 1145 and 1273 on SAT, a much narrower band than the Eastside spread (1198 to 1402). AP pass rates across the top ten range from 45 percent (Monroe) to 89 percent (Snohomish), suggesting more variation in the depth of AP rigor than in the overall college-readiness signal. Innovation Lab High School at rank ten is the smallest school in the top tier — a Northshore option program with 259 students and a project-based model.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public high schools whose attendance area is in Snohomish County (with the Northshore district's Bothell-area schools included because their boundaries cross the King-Snohomish line), ordered by a composite of SAT mean, four-year graduation rate, AP exam pass rate, and SBA proficiency from OSPI's published Report Card. Polaris counts (Harvard/Princeton/MIT matriculations) are shown for context but do not drive the ordering. Charter and tribal compact schools are eligible if classified as public; private schools are listed separately.
Ranked schools
- 001NORTH CREEK HIGH SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+2.66σ
- 002GLACIER PEAK HIGH SCHOOLSNOHOMISH SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+2.16σ
- 003LAKE STEVENS SR HIGH SCHOOLLAKE STEVENS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.76σ
- 004MOUNTLAKE TERRACE HIGH SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.68σ
- 005SNOHOMISH HIGH SCHOOLSNOHOMISH SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.61σ
- 006MEADOWDALE HIGH SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.30σ
- 007KAMIAK HIGH SCHOOLMUKILTEO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.22σ
- 008HENRY M. JACKSON HIGH SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+1.18σ
- 009MONROE HIGH SCHOOLMONROE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.67σ
- 010INNOVATION LAB HIGH SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING+0.45σ
- 011GRANITE FALLS HIGH SCHOOLGRANITE FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.43σ
- 012STANWOOD HIGH SCHOOLSTANWOOD-CAMANO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.39σ
- 013EDMONDS WOODWAY HIGH SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.36σ
- 014LYNNWOOD HIGH SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.23σ
- 015ARLINGTON HIGH SCHOOLARLINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH+0.21σ
- 016CASCADE HIGH SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-0.01σ
- 017EVERETT HIGH SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-0.53σ
- 018SEQUOIA HIGH SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-1.13σ
- 019MARYSVILLE GETCHELL HIGH SCHOOLMARYSVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-1.27σ
- 020MARINER HIGH SCHOOLMUKILTEO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-1.99σ
- 021LAKEWOOD HIGH SCHOOLLAKEWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-2.38σ
- 022MARYSVILLE PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOLMARYSVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH-3.24σ
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