West Seattle High School

Overview

West Seattle High School, known to students as "Westside," is a comprehensive public high school established in 1917 and designated a Seattle Landmark. It is part of Seattle Public Schools (Seattle School District No. 1), with colors navy blue and gold and the Wildcats as its teams.

Enrollment has grown: NCES records 1,479 students for 2024-25 against Wikipedia's 1,329 for 2022-23, with staffing rising from 60.80 to 65.49 FTE. PublicSchoolReview cites an intermediate figure of 1,392. The ratio has stayed around 22:1 throughout, among the higher ratios in this directory. NCES records 220 students free-lunch eligible and 52 reduced-price -- roughly 18% combined, the lowest share of any school profiled here.

Academics

This is one of the strongest academic records in this directory, and the figures are school-specific. PublicSchoolReview, citing NCES and the Washington Department of Education, reports:

• Math proficiency 55% against a Washington state average of 41%
• Reading proficiency 89% against a state average of 53%
• Graduation rate 92% against a state average of 84%
• Ranked #204 of 2,088 Washington public schools -- top 10% overall

One internal tension in that source is worth noting: it places the school in the top 10% for overall test scores while describing math and reading proficiency each as "top 30%." A composite ranking can legitimately exceed its components if other measures contribute, but the two statements sit awkwardly on the same page. The underlying proficiency figures -- 55% and 89% against state averages of 41% and 53% -- are the more directly checkable numbers.

Neighborhood

The school is on California Avenue SW in the West Seattle neighborhood, across Elliott Bay from downtown Seattle. DoorProfit reports a Seattle median household income of $97,185, median home value $713,372, unemployment 4.1%, and poverty 10.2%.

Crime & safety

Seattle has recent official police data, and it points two ways at once.

Citywide, from Seattle Police Department data reported by KING 5 in July 2026: shootings fell more than 20% and homicides more than 30% in the first half of 2026 versus the same period in 2025. Total crime fell 1.8% and violent crime nearly 2%. June 2026 recorded no homicides -- the first such month in over 50 years, per Chief Shon Barnes. The homicide clearance rate stands above 70% against a national average near 61%.

But not evenly. The same report notes violent crime rose 9% in the West Precinct and robberies there spiked 28%. Chief Barnes explicitly addressed "the disconnect between citywide statistics and residents' experiences," and said the department is reallocating personnel to localized spikes.

Property crime remains the city's defining problem. Eufy, citing Seattle's 2024 dataset, reports 5,891 violent crimes and 38,061 property crimes against a population of 760,058 -- a violent rate of 775 per 100,000 and a property rate of 5,008 per 100,000, describing Seattle as consistently among the highest US cities for property crime. A separate guide cites violent crime near 615 per 100,000 and property near 4,700 per 100,000.

For this school's own neighborhood: CrimeGrade grades West Seattle D- for property crime, 11th percentile, at 44.18 incidents per 1,000 residents, with victimization odds ranging from 1 in 14 centrally to 1 in 41 in the northwest. Cost of crime is $371 per resident annually -- $236 above the national average and $112 above Seattle's own city average.

Our calculated rating

We don't publish a single proprietary score. This school has genuinely strong, school-specific academic data -- 2 of 3 components -- but the safety picture is a D- property-crime grade for its neighborhood set against citywide improvement, with one provider's grades unreliable and one widely-reported figure attributable to a different precinct entirely. See our ratings methodology.

Sources