The Center School
SEATTLE · WA · Seattle School District No. 1 · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Cascade Parent Partnership Program → Summit Public School: Sierra → Seattle World School → Innovation Heights Academy → Nova High School → Lake Washington Technical Academy → Bridges Transition → Highline Open Doors 1418 →📋 At a glance
- 📚 5 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 3 physics
- 🎓 AP rigor: 64th percentile nationally
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How The Center School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 64th percentile nationally with 5 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: Cascade Parent Partnership Program, Summit Public School: Sierra, Seattle World School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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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
64th 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
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
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 strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -15.8%/year, projecting from 2024's 165 students:
A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade Parent Partnership Program SEATTLE |
Public | 1.7 | 139 | +12.1% |
| Summit Public School: Sierra Seattle |
Public · charter | 2.2 | 214 | -27.7% |
| Seattle World School SEATTLE |
Public | 2.0 | 218 | +2.3% |
| Innovation Heights Academy Burien |
Public | 8.4 | 142 | +31.5% |
| Nova High School SEATTLE |
Public | 2.5 | 256 | +11.3% |
| Lake Washington Technical Academy Kirkland |
Public | 10.3 | 138 | -43.4% |
| Bridges Transition Seattle |
Public | 7.2 | 109 | -23.2% |
| Highline Open Doors 1418 Burien |
Public | 8.7 | 240 | +3.9% |