Top Public High Schools in Olympia by Graduation Rate
The Olympia metro's secondary system is divided unusually evenly across three districts of comparable size — Olympia, North Thurston Public Schools (Lacey), and Tumwater — each running its own comprehensive high schools plus a constellation of small alternative and choice programs. Ranked by four-year adjusted-cohort graduation rate, the top of the table reflects that distribution: every district in the metro contributes at least one school, and the gap between first and tenth is narrower than in most metropolitan listicles in this batch.
Tumwater High School leads at 96.8 percent, and pairs that completion rate with the most explicit career-and-technical investment of any traditional public high school in the region. The Tumwater School District has built out CTE pathways covering aircraft and drone flight, cybersecurity, biomedical sciences, culinary arts, construction trades, and natural resources ecology, with industry partnerships including Providence Swedish, the LOTT Clean Water Alliance, and the Pacific Shellfish Institute. Olympia High School, the oldest comprehensive in the city and home of the Bears, posts a 92.4 percent rate, a 1241 SAT mean, and an 86.8 percent AP pass rate — by some distance the strongest AP performance in the region and a reflection of OHS's status as the deepest college-prep program in the South Sound.
The smaller alternative and choice campuses populate much of the rest of the list. Avanti High School, an Olympia option program of about 190 students, posts a 92 percent rate without the comprehensive feature set; A G West Black Hills, Tumwater's second comprehensive, sits just behind. North Thurston Public Schools then contributes Timberline, North Thurston, and River Ridge, all in Lacey, with rates between 84 and 92 percent. Capital High School in west Olympia and Yelm High School in Yelm round out the longer table.
Olympia and Tumwater run unusually tight ranges among their comprehensive and alternative campuses — within roughly five percentage points top to bottom — while North Thurston shows wider spread across Timberline, North Thurston, and River Ridge despite being a single district. New Market High School, the small Tumwater Skills Center program enrolling sixty-one students, is included here for completeness; its rate is calculated from a much smaller cohort than the comprehensive 9-12s.
Olympia and Tumwater run unusually tight ranges among their comprehensive and alternative campuses — within roughly five percentage points top to bottom — while North Thurston Public Schools shows wider spread across Timberline, North Thurston, and River Ridge despite being a single district. New Market HS, the small Tumwater Skills Center program enrolling sixty-one students, is included for completeness; its rate is calculated from a much smaller cohort than the comprehensive 9-12s.
Ranked schools
- 001TUMWATER HIGH SCHOOLTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON97%
- 002OLYMPIA HIGH SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON92%
- 003AVANTI HIGH SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON92%
- 004A G WEST BLACK HILLS HIGH SCHOOLTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON92%
- 005TIMBERLINE HIGH SCHOOLNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON92%
- 006CAPITAL HIGH SCHOOLOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON90%
- 007NORTH THURSTON HIGH SCHOOLNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON88%
- 008NEW MARKET HIGH SCHOOLTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON87%
- 009RIVER RIDGE HIGH SCHOOLNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON84%
- 010YELM HIGH SCHOOL 12YELM SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON82%
- 011WASHINGTON CONNECTIONS ACADEMY GOLDENDALEGOLDENDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KLICKITAT75%
- 012OLYMPIA REGIONAL LEARNING ACADEMYOLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON69%
- 013SUMMIT VIRTUAL ACADEMYNORTH THURSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS · THURSTON65%
- 014CASCADIA HIGH SCHOOLTUMWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON63%
- 015YELM EXTENSION SCHOOLYELM SCHOOL DISTRICT · THURSTON60%
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