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What tradition at Rainier Beach High School should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
854
High
DISTRICT 831 · STATE 573
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1·NCES 530771001236
Rainier Beach High School
8815 SEWARD PARK AV S, SEATTLE, WA 98118 · (206) 252-6350 · King County
GRADES 09–12HIGH11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL854 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
19.9:1
43 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.6:1 · STATE 21.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
67%
571 students
DISTRICT 36% · STATE 51%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 217 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 191 | 22% |
| Grade 11 | 221 | 26% |
| Grade 12 | 225 | 26% |
Student demographics
73%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 73% · STATE 68% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
33.0%
WA avg 58.4% . +11.0pp since 2014
Math
14.7%
WA avg 51.2% . +2.7pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 33 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 15 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are up about 11 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 3 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 33.0% | 14.7% |
| 2023-24 | 31.3% | 11.3% |
| 2022-23 | 36.6% | 16.3% |
| 2021-22 | 28.9% | 8.8% |
| 2018-19 | 46.5% | 21.6% |
| 2017-18 | 53.3% | 20.0% |
| 2016-17 | N/A | 11.3% |
| 2015-16 | N/A | 15.2% |
| 2014-15 | 22.0% | 12.0% |
% Met or Exceeded Standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Smarter Balanced + WCAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of WA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
19.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.3%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 19% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 35% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Rainier Beach High School
Rainier Beach High School's state test result (19.4% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainier Beach High School this school | 854 | 66.9% | 19.4% |
| Franklin High School SEATTLE | 1,277 | 57.2% | 37.2% |
| Foster Senior High School Tukwila | 910 | 68.8% | 27.7% |
| Renton Senior High School Renton | 1,208 | 65.6% | 27.0% |
| Chief Sealth International High School SEATTLE | 1,184 | 51.6% | 31.6% |
| Foss High School Tacoma | 599 | 69.4% | 19.5% |
Matched among Washington high schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Rainier Beach High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In King County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 19.4% | #264 of 271 | #56 of 59 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 14.7% | #266 of 321 ▲ 28 | #50 of 59 ▲ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 33.0% | #302 of 327 ▲ 9 | #55 of 61 ▲ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +5.0pp | #40 of 259 | #3 of 57 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 854 | #173 of 570 | #50 of 97 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.9:1 | #116 of 311 | #20 of 67 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 72.7% | #43 of 316 | #27 of 67 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 66.9% | #78 of 386 | #15 of 76 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +14.5% | #43 of 136 | #9 of 31 |
Ranked against other public high schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
854
+73 (+9%) vs 2020
+20% since 1990-91, when it was 714
Student : Teacher
19.9:1
was 16.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 854 | 43 | 19.9:1 | 67% (571) |
| 2023-24 | 765 | 46 | 16.6:1 | 80% (614) |
| 2022-23 | 818 | 45.8 | 17.9:1 | 80% (658) |
| 2020-21 | 781 | 47 | 16.6:1 | 73% (567) |
| 2017-18 | 746 | 42.6 | 17.5:1 | 78% (579) |
| 2015-16 | 671 | 41 | 16.4:1 | 70% (468) |
| 2010-11 | 425 | 30 | 14.2:1 | 69% (295) |
| 2000-01 | 683 | 41 | 16.7:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 714 | 40 | 17.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Rainier Beach High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 14% (746 to 854); teachers up 1% (42.6 to 43).
About Rainier Beach High School
Rainier Beach High School is a medium-sized high school in SEATTLE, Washington, (ZIP code 98118). Enrolled students number 854 students, in grades 9 through 12. Statewide, high schools in Washington average about 573 students each.
Seattle School District No. 1 enrolls 50,773 students, and its 107 schools include Rainier Beach High School.
Rainier Beach High School has no majority group; Black students are the largest, at 41%. Beyond that, enrollment is 23% Asian, 20% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, and 4% White. In King County overall, about 7% of residents are Black. Pick two students at random and there is a 73% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The ratio of students to teachers is 19.9:1, with 43 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 21.6:1 average for high schools in Washington. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Rainier Beach High School is 67%. It compares with 38% for public schools in King County.
Rainier Beach High School is 15.9 points below expectations on state tests, given its student poverty level, placing it in the bottom 10% in Washington.
Within King County, the median household income is $124,746, 57% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Rainier Beach High School is one of 544 public schools in the county.
The nearest public school is Middle College High School, at about 0.2 miles. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Among the 8 closest schools with test data, this one included, Rainier Beach High School ranks 8th on average proficiency.
Rainier Beach High School is coded as City: Large in federal locale data.
Enrollment at Rainier Beach High School grew 9% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 781 to 854 students. Federal data show the ratio rising from 16.6:1 to 19.9:1.
Threads on this page can be about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
King County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,287,171
Census ACS
Median income
$124,746
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
544
278,492 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Seattle School District No. 1
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 1,770 students
- Ballard High SchoolHigh · 1,697 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 1,542 students
- Garfield High SchoolHigh · 1,507 students
- West Seattle High SchoolHigh · 1,479 students
- Ingraham High SchoolHigh · 1,391 students
Other schools in SEATTLE
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 1,770 students
- Ballard High SchoolHigh · 1,697 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 1,542 students
- Garfield High SchoolHigh · 1,507 students
- West Seattle High SchoolHigh · 1,479 students
- Ingraham High SchoolHigh · 1,391 students
Nearby schools
- Middle College High School0.2 mi · 93
- Alan T. Sugiyama High School0.2 mi · 48
- South Shore PK-8 School0.3 mi · 546
- Dunlap Elementary School0.4 mi · 261
- Emerson Elementary School0.8 mi · 398
- Wing Luke Elementary School1.0 mi · 334
Frequently asked questions
About Rainier Beach High SchoolHow many students attend Rainier Beach High School?
Rainier Beach High School enrolls approximately 854 students in grades 09-12.
What grades does Rainier Beach High School serve?
Rainier Beach High School serves grades 09-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Rainier Beach High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Rainier Beach High School is approximately 19.9:1 (43 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Rainier Beach High School?
Rainier Beach High School reports a student body of 4% White, 20% Hispanic, 41% Black, 23% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Who oversees Rainier Beach High School?
Rainier Beach High School is overseen by Seattle School District No. 1 in King County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.