Highline High School
Burien · WA · Highline School District · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Evergreen High School → West Seattle High School → Mount Rainier High School → Garfield High School → Decatur High School → Federal Way High School → Auburn Mountainview High School → Thomas Jefferson High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 7 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes
- 🎓 AP rigor: 59th percentile nationally
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Highline High School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 59th percentile nationally with 7 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyWA sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Evergreen High School, West Seattle High School, Mount Rainier High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
59th percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
📊 State assessment · WA Smarter Balanced · grade 10
SBAC grade 10 — met or exceeded standard
School year 2024-25. Levels 3 + 4 combined ("at or above grade level"). Cells suppressed by the state when sample is small.
Source: WA state DOE Smarter Balanced results. Levels 1–2 = below standard, 3 = met, 4 = exceeded. Headline = level 3 + level 4 combined.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Washington-Seattle Campus
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $14,091/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +8.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,423 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $22,395 per student in district revenue, the 714 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $15,990,030/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evergreen High School Seattle |
Public | 2.4 | 1,080 | +5.5% |
| West Seattle High School SEATTLE |
Public | 8.0 | 1,479 | +20.6% |
| Mount Rainier High School Des Moines |
Public | 4.7 | 1,846 | +8.6% |
| Garfield High School SEATTLE |
Public | 9.7 | 1,507 | -10.0% |
| Decatur High School FEDERAL WAY |
Public | 10.5 | 1,352 | +5.1% |
| Federal Way High School FEDERAL WAY |
Public | 9.6 | 1,665 | +4.8% |
| Auburn Mountainview High School Auburn |
Public | 11.4 | 1,560 | -2.1% |
| Thomas Jefferson High School AUBURN |
Public | 8.8 | 1,810 | +10.2% |