Top Public High Schools in Seattle by SAT Mean
Within Seattle proper, public high school SAT means are markedly more compressed than on the Eastside — partly because the Seattle Public Schools assignment system mixes attendance-area and option enrollment more democratically across neighborhoods, and partly because the city's strongest score-takers have historically been pulled toward private schools (Lakeside, University Prep, Holy Names, Seattle Academy, Bush). The top of this list reflects that compression: the highest-scoring public school in the Seattle commuting shed is on Mercer Island, just across I-90 from the city, and the Seattle Public Schools entries themselves cluster between 1135 and 1247.
Mercer Island High School leads at 1323 — the only school in the table to clear 1300. Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, a Northshore School District campus on Seattle's northeast commuting fringe, follows at 1256. Lincoln High School, reopened in fall 2019 after thirty-eight years dark and a roughly $100 million renovation of its 1906 Wallingford building, posts 1247 in only its first complete cycle of senior cohorts — a strong opening signal for the district's newest neighborhood comprehensive.
Shoreline School District contributes both Shorewood (1244) and Shorecrest (1228), the two comprehensives on Seattle's immediate northern border. Roosevelt High School (1209) — Wallingford's other anchor and longstanding home of one of the country's most decorated high school jazz programs, with multiple first-place finishes at the Essentially Ellington competition — sits sixth, in part because its college-prep cohort overlaps significantly with neighboring Lincoln post-2019. Bothell High School (1198) in the Northshore district, Ballard (1167), Ingraham (1153), and West Seattle (1135) round out the top ten.
The four Seattle Public Schools comprehensive high schools that appear in this top ten — Lincoln, Roosevelt, Ballard, Ingraham, West Seattle — are all north of Lake Union or in West Seattle. The three large south-end SPS comprehensives (Garfield, Franklin, Rainier Beach) and the central comprehensive Cleveland STEM either fall just outside the top ten or do not have OSPI-reported SAT means meeting the cohort threshold; that geographic split has been a recurring topic in Seattle School Board boundary and resource-allocation debates.
The four Seattle Public Schools comprehensive high schools that appear in this top ten — Lincoln, Roosevelt, Ballard, Ingraham, West Seattle — are all north of Lake Union or in West Seattle. The three large south-end SPS comprehensives (Garfield, Franklin, Rainier Beach) and the central comprehensive Cleveland STEM either fall just outside the top ten or do not have OSPI-reported SAT means meeting the cohort threshold; that geographic split has been a recurring topic in Seattle School Board boundary and resource-allocation debates.
Ranked schools
- 001MERCER ISLAND HIGH SCHOOLMERCER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1323
- 002INGLEMOOR HSNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1256
- 003LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1247
- 004SHOREWOOD HIGH SCHOOLSHORELINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1244
- 005SHORECREST HIGH SCHOOLSHORELINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1228
- 006ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1209
- 007BOTHELL HIGH SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1198
- 008BALLARD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1167
- 009INGRAHAM HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1153
- 010WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1135
- 011RAISBECK AVIATION HIGH SCHOOLHIGHLINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1130
- 012GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1118
- 013NOVA HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1064
- 014EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOLHIGHLINE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING1057
- 015NATHAN HALE HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING1041
- 016FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING941
- 017RENTON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLRENTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING890
- 018RAINIER BEACH HIGH SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING811
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