Port Townsend High School

Port Townsend · WA · Port Townsend School District · Public


📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 4 AP courses offered — Strong
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 59th percentile nationally

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Port Townsend High School compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor at the 59th percentile nationally with 4 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: Coupeville High School, Island County Corrections Facility Ed Program, Sequim Senior High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses

59th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
4
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
32
≈8 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
2
1 calculus · 1 advanced
Lab science classes
1
0 physics · 1 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program
✅ Gifted/talented program

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 · 2020-21
SAT/ACT test-takers
0
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
0.0
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

Source: 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

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
2.2%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
13.3%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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.

English Language Arts
82.1%
48.8% exceeded · 69 students tested
Math
44.0%
25.0% exceeded · 37 students tested

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

43.3%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

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

42%
admit rate
$12,973
in-state tuition/yr · $43,209 out-of-state

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.

See the full University of Washington-Seattle Campus profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
22.5%
Elevated above the national average (~16%). Worth understanding — chronic absence compounds into dropout risk, transfer-out risk, and revenue loss.
Students absent 15+ days
86
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

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.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
383:1
Around the US median. Counselors are stretched but functional.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
19
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

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

Grade 12 went from 78 in 2021 to 96 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+23.1%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -0.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 383 students:

2025
382
2027
380
2029
378

≈ 5 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue at risk

At $19,470 per student in district revenue, the 5 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $97,350/year in funding at risk.

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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Coupeville High School
Coupeville
Public 7.2 256 -5.5%
Island County Corrections Facility Ed Program
Coupeville
Public 7.8
Sequim Senior High
Sequim
Public 15.7 804 +2.4%
La Conner High School
LA CONNER
Public 23.0 177 -10.6%
Marysville NWESD 189 Youth Engagement
Marysville
Public 27.7 205 +177.0%
Edmonds Heights K-12
Edmonds
Public 29.4 214 +11.5%
Lakewood High School
Arlington
Public 25.7 834 -3.9%
Anacortes High School
Anacortes
Public 27.7 766 +1.9%

For Parents

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