Best Schools in Washington
Washington's top secondary schools cluster overwhelmingly in the Seattle and Eastside corridors, with secondary anchors in Tacoma and Spokane. Lakeside School in Seattle (founded 1919, ~875 students, ~$260 million endowment, 31 Harvard / Princeton / MIT acceptances 2022-2025) leads the private side by a wide margin. Holy Names Academy on Capitol Hill (1880) is the oldest continuously operating school in the state and the senior single-sex Catholic college-prep flagship. The Bellevue School District's gifted and IB magnets — Interlake Senior High School and International School — and the Lake Washington School District's Tesla STEM in Redmond lead the public side; Mercer Island High School joins them at the top as the single-HS island-district exception. The long-established secular independents — Bush, University Prep, Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences, Overlake, and Eastside Preparatory — round out the metro apex.
Outside the Puget Sound metro, the senior Catholic Jesuit anchors carry the field. Bellarmine Preparatory in Tacoma, founded in 1928, became the first Jesuit school in the United States to go co-ed in 1974 and is the most-decorated school in WIAA history (114+ state titles 1973-present); it offers 41 AP / honors / dual-credit courses and operates a four-year marine-chemistry research track. Gonzaga Preparatory in Spokane, founded in 1887 by Father Joseph Cataldo, S.J. in the basement of what is now Gonzaga University's administration building, is the oldest school in Spokane and one of the oldest schools west of the Rockies; it was a formal department of Gonzaga University from 1922 through 1969.
Tacoma's secular independent cohort is unusually deep for a mid-size American city. Annie Wright Schools (founded 1884 with late-nineteenth-century Northern Pacific Railway wealth) is the only IB Continuum school in Washington, running PYP, MYP, and DP across the full grade span, and operates a coordinate single-sex upper-school model with separate Upper School for Girls and Upper School for Boys plus boarding programs for both. Charles Wright Academy on a 107-acre University Place campus was founded in 1957 by Sam and Nathalie Brown with support from Episcopal Bishop Stephen Bayne to serve students displaced from Annie Wright after the 1949 Tacoma earthquake; it went co-ed in 1970. Saint George's School in Spokane became the city's first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme school in 2014 and won the WIAA Scholastic Cup at the 2B classification level in 2018 and 2020.
The strong publics outside the metro include Bainbridge High School (the single high school of Bainbridge Island School District, with water access to Seattle's downtown), Mead Senior High School (the senior Spokane-area suburban comprehensive 9-12), and Stadium High School in Tacoma (the historic 1891-1906 castle-campus building originally constructed as a Northern Pacific Railway resort hotel). Roosevelt and Garfield anchor Seattle Public Schools' historic comprehensive 9-12 tradition; Newport, Skyline, Eastlake, Issaquah, and Redmond round out the strong neighborhood publics on the Eastside.
S Tier · 13 schools
- 001LAKESIDE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING875 students
- 002INTERLAKE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,688 students
- 003HOLY NAMES ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING571 students
- 004MERCER ISLAND HIGH SCHOOLMERCER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,432 students
- 005NIKOLA TESLA STEM HIGH SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING619 students
- 006EASTSIDE PREPARATORY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING536 students
- 007BELLARMINE PREPARATORY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · PIERCE889 students
- 008GONZAGA PREPARATORY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SPOKANE778 students
- 009THE OVERLAKE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING557 students
- 010SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING1,170 students
- 011THE BUSH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING715 students
- 012UNIVERSITY PREP(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING662 students
- 013INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING609 students
A Tier · 27 schools
- 014REDMOND HIGH SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,308 students
- 015BELLEVUE HIGH SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,780 students
- 016NEWPORT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,847 students
- 017ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1,505 students
- 018EASTSIDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING880 students
- 019SKYLINE HIGH SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,190 students
- 020STADIUM HIGH SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE1,746 students
- 021EASTLAKE HIGH SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,470 students
- 022GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1,396 students
- 023BAINBRIDGE HIGH SCHOOLBAINBRIDGE ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KITSAP1,168 students
- 024ANNIE WRIGHT SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · PIERCE748 students
- 025THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING673 students
- 026CHARLES WRIGHT ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · PIERCE487 students
- 027THE NORTHWEST SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING429 students
- 028SEATTLE PREPARATORY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING750 students
- 029ISSAQUAH HIGH SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,429 students
- 030MEAD SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLMEAD SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE1,772 students
- 031LYNDEN CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM1,211 students
- 032KING'S SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING1,209 students
- 033BISHOP BLANCHET HIGH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING922 students
- 034BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING918 students
- 035O'DEA HIGH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING461 students
- 036FOREST RIDGE SCHOOL OF THE SACRED HEART(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING245 students
- 037SEATTLE WALDORF SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING193 students
- 038ST GEORGE'S SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SPOKANE345 students
- 039BASIS INDEPENDENT BELLEVUE(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING231 students
- 040SPRING STREET INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SAN JUAN117 students
B Tier · 26 schools
- 041LAKE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,164 students
- 042BALLARD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1,678 students
- 043INGRAHAM HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1,357 students
- 044MOUNT SI HIGH SCHOOLSNOQUALMIE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING2,164 students
- 045BOTHELL HIGH SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,833 students
- 046INGLEMOOR HSNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1,460 students
- 047KINGS WAY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · CLARK886 students
- 048LIFE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · PIERCE663 students
- 049SEATTLE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING606 students
- 050MOUNT VERNON CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SKAGIT589 students
- 051NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SPOKANE580 students
- 052LIBERTY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · BENTON561 students
- 053GRACE ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SNOHOMISH408 students
- 054PROVIDENCE CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING350 students
- 055WOODINVILLE MONTESSORI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING312 students
- 056VALLEY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · SPOKANE494 students
- 057FIRM FOUNDATION CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · CLARK391 students
- 058CROSSPOINT(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KITSAP373 students
- 059UNITED SEATTLE&BELLEVUE KOREAN SCH BELLEVUE CAMPUS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING345 students
- 060THE RIVER ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · CHELAN286 students
- 061WILLOWS PREPARATORY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING271 students
- 062SUNNYSIDE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · YAKIMA264 students
- 063THREE RIVERS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · COWLITZ257 students
- 064CEDAR TREE CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · CLARK235 students
- 065ST MONICA SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING222 students
- 066NORTHWEST YESHIVA HIGH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING57 students
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