This Is The Best Public High School In Washington

By Grant Suneson, 24/7 Wall St. - Seattle

2021-10-07

The quality of American public schools can vary widely between states, cities, and even districts. Not all schools are able to provide students with the same level of education, access to extracurriculars, counseling, or college preparation. While each public school faces its own unique challenges, each state has one public school that stands out as the very best.

The best public high schools tend to be in relatively affluent areas, where incomes are well above the U.S. median household income of $62,843. A wealthier tax base for a school district means that schools have more funding to hire teachers and other faculty and provide more extracurriculars.

In many of the best public high schools in a given state, the vast majority of students graduate and perform well in educational assessments. Nationwide, only 24% of students are proficient in math and 37% are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Students at top high schools also tend to perform well in college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT, with reported scores well above the 1058 out of 1600 nationwide average for the SAT and the 20.6 out of 36 average for the ACT.

Tesla STEM High School in Redmond ranks as the best public high school in Washington state. The school earned an A+ overall grade, as well as top marks for its academics, teachers, health and safety, and college prep, from school data platform Niche.

Tesla STEM High School offers alternative education, allowing students to work in STEM labs and utilize problem-based learning. More than 90% of students are enrolled in Advanced Placement courses, and the school’s average SAT and ACT scores are well above national averages.

To determine the best public high schools in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2022 K-12 School & District Rankings from Niche, a platform for education data. The Niche ranking is based on academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student reviews submitted to Niche. Data on student count and student-teacher ratio came from Niche.

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This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.