Bellevue Big Picture School, Bellevue WA

Original Research by School Decision on Bellevue Big Picture School

Bellevue Big Picture School is an alternative school serving grades six through twelve in the Bellevue School District. Its approach is the core fact about this place. The school is small, which is typical for a program of this type, and its enrollment is distributed unevenly across the grade span, with the middle grades carrying the bulk of the students and the high school grades holding fewer. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with the largest identified group being white students, followed by a substantial Asian student population, and smaller shares of students who are two or more races, Hispanic, Black, and American Indian or Alaska Native. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals is modest. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, and a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports and populations.

Academically, the picture comes from one year of state testing data, so there is no trend to examine. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades six, seven, and eight clustered in a range that put the school near the middle of the distribution when compared to other districts in King County. In math, the sixth-grade proficiency rate was lower than the seventh- and eighth-grade rates, which were closer together. In eighth-grade science, the proficiency rate was roughly in the same territory as the math results. Overall, the composite proficiency index for the school sits below the midpoint among King County districts. A parent evaluating the school should consider that these results come from a single year and that the school’s alternative model may mean its testing population and instructional approach differ from a traditional school’s. The state testing results for high school grades were not reported in the data, so the full picture of academic performance across all grades is incomplete.

The school serves grades six through twelve, but no four-year graduation rate was available in the data. Because the school is an alternative program, the absence of that metric may reflect the nature of the school or the way its outcomes are reported. A parent should confirm with the school how it tracks graduation and postsecondary pathways.

The school sits in Bellevue, a city that is both a high-rise downtown employment hub and a collection of suburban, wooded neighborhoods. The city’s economy is heavily driven by major technology employers, and the housing market reflects that: home values in the area are very high, and rents are also elevated. The school is part of the Bellevue School District, which operates several comprehensive high schools across the city. No recent parent-relevant changes to the district, such as boundary adjustments or program launches, were found in publicly reported information.

For a family considering this school, the defining question is whether its alternative, project-based, or personalized learning model—the hallmarks of the Big Picture network—matches a student’s needs. Academically, the available test scores are in a middle range relative to the county, not the high end one might associate with the Bellevue district’s reputation. The school is small and diverse, housed within an affluent and fast-growing city with a very expensive housing market. A parent should seek a clear picture of the high school completion rate and the postsecondary outcomes for graduates, as those were not in the data. This is a school that fits a student who wants a non-traditional path, but the evidence on how that path translates into academic results is limited to one year of middle-grades testing.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 36% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 73% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 849%

School 49% · District 65% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 36% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 64% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 868%

School 68% · District 72% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 68% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolBellevue School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income65%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income44%Higher-income58%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income67%45 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income73%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income58%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income45%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income21%Higher-income60%39 pp gap