Where Washington high school graduates actually go after graduation
Sixteen months after they walk across the stage, about 1 in 3 Washington public-school graduates is enrolled at a 4-year college, 1 in 6 is at a 2-year or career-and-technical college, and 1 in 2 isn't enrolled at any college at all. The 4-year share ranges from 75% at the top (Mercer Island) to under 15% across much of the Capital Region.
Published May 15, 2026postsecondarycollegeoutcomesERDC
33 / 16 / 52
Share of Washington public-school graduates enrolled in a 4-year college, a 2-year/CTC program, or not enrolled the fall after graduation
Washington's Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) follows every public-school graduating cohort into the next school year and reports, by high school, the share enrolled at a 4-year college, the share at a community college or career-and-technical center, and the share not enrolled at any college. It's the cleanest after-the-diploma outcome data the state publishes.
Washington public-high-school graduates by fall enrollment after graduation (state weighted average, 2024-25)
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes; enrollment-weighted across 256 comprehensive public high schools with reported data.
"Not enrolled" doesn't mean "not doing anything" — it covers students who entered the workforce, the trades, apprenticeships, the military, or who deferred a year. ERDC tracks broader labor-market and military outcomes in separate reports, but those breakdowns aren't surfaced at the per-school level in OSPI's report card data — at the per-school level, all we see is enrolled-at-2-year / enrolled-at-4-year / not-enrolled-at-any-college. The 52% no-college share is also higher than the national norm in part because Washington has strong building-trades and aerospace job pipelines that absorb graduates directly.
The top of the 4-year list
Twenty schools — almost all of them on the Eastside, in north Seattle, or on the islands — send a majority of their graduates straight to a 4-year college.
Top 15 Washington public high schools by 4-year college matriculation rate (fall after graduation)
Mercer Island HS
75%
Eastlake HS (Sammamish)
71%
Bainbridge HS
68%
Skyline HS (Sammamish)
67%
Lake Washington HS (Kirkland)
67%
Roosevelt HS (Seattle)
65%
Raisbeck Aviation HS
65%
Bellevue HS
64%
Ballard HS (Seattle)
63%
Issaquah HS
62%
Inglemoor HS (Kenmore)
61%
Redmond HS
60%
Mount Si HS (Snoqualmie)
60%
Newport HS (Bellevue)
60%
Interlake HS (Bellevue)
60%
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes via OSPI Report Card, 2024-25.
Regional contrast
By Washington's nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs) — the state's regional school administrative groupings — the gap between the highest and lowest median 4-year matriculation rates is more than 14 percentage points.
Median 4-year matriculation rate by Educational Service District, comprehensive public high schools, 2024-25
ESD 121 (Puget Sound)
34%
ESD 101 (NE WA / Spokane)
34%
ESD 189 (Northwest)
29%
ESD 114 (Olympic Peninsula)
24%
ESD 112 (SW WA)
23%
ESD 123 (SE WA / Tri-Cities)
23%
ESD 171 (North Central)
23%
ESD 105 (South Central / Yakima)
22%
ESD 113 (Capital Region)
20%
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes; medians across each ESD's comprehensive public high schools.
This is matriculation, not graduation — it counts who enrolled the fall after high school, not who eventually earned a degree. Persistence and completion data lag enrollment data by 4–6 years.
Share / cite this
16 months after graduation, ~1 in 3 Washington public-school grads is enrolled at a 4-year college, 1 in 6 at a 2-year/CTC program, and 1 in 2 is not enrolled at any college. The 4-year rate runs from 75% (Mercer Island) to under 15% in much of the Capital Region.
Source: WA K12 Academic Atlas · https://waschools.org/research/where-wa-grads-go/
Methodology
Source is ERDC's HS Graduate Outcomes file, surfaced through the OSPI Report Card and joined into the WA K12 Academic Atlas as ps_4_year, ps_2_year_ctc, and ps_not_enrolled. Universe is comprehensive public high schools (level=HIGH, grades roughly 9-12, enrollment ≥200) with a reported postsecondary cohort (n=256). State averages are enrollment-weighted (graduating cohort × per-school rate, summed and divided). ESD medians are unweighted across schools within each ESD. "4-year college" and "2-year / CTC" are ERDC's own categorizations; "not enrolled" means not enrolled at any postsecondary institution the fall after graduation — it does not mean unemployed, in the military, or in an apprenticeship.
Sources
ERDC HS Graduate Outcomes (postsecondary enrollment), via OSPI
These figures come from the WA K12 Academic Atlas — an interactive map of every K-12 school in Washington, assembled from twelve public data sources. Browse the map · see the rankings. Reporters: see the note on the research index.