Highline High School

Highline High School, a high-enrollment 9-12 campus in Burien, Washington, operated by Highline School District, hosts 1,423 students, covering grades 9 through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 148% bigger than the state mean of about 573.

Highline High School is one of 36 schools operated by Highline School District, a district that caters to 18,072 students overall.

On demographics, Highline High School logs that 56% of the student body identifies as Hispanic; the rest looks like 17% Asian, 10% White, 9% Black, 5% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 11%.

On the income-and-resources front, Highline High School reports 66 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 21.5:1. The state averages about 21.6:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 67% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, King County runs at roughly 38%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Highline High School falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 35.2%; this one comes in at 22.3%, -12.9 points off the demographic line.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (King County) records that median household income runs about $124,746, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Across King County's 544 public schools (combined enrollment of about 278,492 students), Highline High School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Sylvester Middle School, around 0.8 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Highline High School. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Highline High School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 31.4%.

Highline High School operates from a bedroom-community location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 19%: 1,196 students in 2018 compared to 1,423 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 20% to 10% across the same window.

On the community side, the feed for Highline High School typically covers sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.