5 High Schools in Bellevue in Top 100 of Newsweek's 'Best' List

[tudorjason]

No surprise. Most, if not all, of Bellevue's high schools are on that list every year. And local news has done reports about teachers and other faculty forcing AP courses, and therefore the exams, on students. Plus, a huge percentage of Bellevue residents who pay taxes are wealthy, so the school district can afford to pay for those AP courses. If I remember correctly, when I took AP in high school 10 years ago, it cost $25,000 to start a course; it's probably more now. With more wealthy people comes more AP courses and students that are groomed to be in the highest part of our society.

I'm sorry, I'm being a little bitter about my poor upbringing.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by toughguy

My swipe was a tongue in cheek response to one of our frequent posters that moved to Texas (Houston I believe), always taking passive-aggressive little pot shots at Seattle.

If you are referring to me, my posts aren't passive-aggressive...more like openly critical.

But hey, I came to this thread to say, "Congratulations to Bellevue." Methodology aside, I thought it was cool to see 5 Bellevue high schools on that list.

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

You already do it, it's called Lowell Elementary, my son went there. Then you can continue the APP in Washington Middle school and then Garfield HS. Why do you think Garfield often ranks high for Seattle high schools?

Again, the point of my post is that any of these lists are totally bogus for the reasons that you and I are outlining here.

Garfield does take students from all over the city, but they also have a student body 10x the size of TAG, and they don't have admissions requirements....again, not comparable whatsoever. I'm not trying to say TX schools are inferior to WA schools, I'm just pointing out that within the context of their methodology, it's flawed to include what are essentially private schools in their study.

full disclosure: I attended 2 Bellevue high schools on the list.

[texastrigirl]

The "whether or not the AP exams are paid for" issue has been a hot one in the ranking for the author of this article. Here's a link to some perspective on the article...

Best High Schools: The Reaction | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

[dxenopoulos]

Regardless of the methodology of the rankings, I still think it says a lot about the academic goals of the Bellevue School District. They really want all their students to match some pretty challenging standards, and I applaud that. They have some new leadership in Superintendant Amalia Cudeiro, who may or may not be a shift from the Mike Riley days but certainly wants to continue to improve Bellevue schools.

Bellevue school district is rather diverse. Almost 1/4 students at Interlake High (ranked 11th) and 1/3 students at Sammamish High (ranked 48th) are free/reduced lunch, and indicator of some level of non-wealthy people in the district. At both schools, well over 1/3 of students speak a language other than English and, and both are about 45% non-white. These are the "poorer" of the high schools in Bellevue. Newport High (ranked 34th) and Bellevue High (ranked 78th), are about 10% free/reduced lunch, both 1/4 speak a language other than English and are 47% and 36% non-White respectively (mostly Asian and multiracial). I throw these demographics out there to show that the Bellevue School District clearly doesn't just serve rich white and east Asian folks, it serves all kinds of people of various economic status. The district is blessed to have huge support from the community (which has a highly educated population), and a large number of wealthy people that contribute via taxes and donations.

BSD's focus on "standards" is probably one reason why it does so well in these rankings. I attended Bellevue schools, and while AP was common and kids were definitely encouraged to take the classes (even if they don't want to take the tests/don't pass the tests), nobody was ever forced. I never took an AP class because it wasn't for me. My non-honors classes were still rigorous. My experiences in BSD definitely led to my success in college.

[Anders15]

Can students pick any grade school? Is it true grade school students can pick any school? High school? Obviously with parents permission but is it true or are they zoned off? Does having excellent grades/honors matter?