Original Research by School Decision on Twin Cedars High School
Twin Cedars High School serves students in seventh through twelfth grade as an alternative school within the Concrete School District in the small, rural town of Concrete, Washington. The school is situated in northeastern Skagit County at the edge of the North Cascades, a setting that defines the community as a gateway for outdoor recreation. The town itself is compact, with a downtown core along Main Street that includes the Upper Skagit Library, Town Hall, the Concrete Theatre, and Silo Park. The middle school and high school share a campus on South 16th Street, a short distance from the immediate downtown.
The school is classified as an alternative school, a designation that typically indicates a non-traditional educational setting designed to serve students whose needs are not well met in a conventional comprehensive school. Alternative schools often have smaller enrollments, flexible scheduling, and a focus on personalized instruction, credit recovery, or socio-emotional support, but the specific programmatic approach at Twin Cedars is not detailed in the available data. The Concrete School District is one of the larger employers in town, and the district’s total enrollment across its three schools is modest, reflecting the small population of the area.
State testing data for Twin Cedars has been suppressed for math, English language arts, and science, meaning no proficiency rates are reported. Suppression of this kind often occurs when the number of students tested is too small to be reported publicly without risking individual student identification, a common circumstance for a school with a very small enrollment. Because the school serves seventh through twelfth graders, state assessments are typically administered in these grades, so the absence of reported results is almost certainly a function of the school’s small size rather than a gap in testing itself. No graduation rate is available in the data either, which would be unusual for a high school, and again may reflect the small number of students in the graduating cohort.
Enrollment figures for Twin Cedars are reported as zero in each grade, which is an artifact of the data source rather than an indication that the school has no students. The school is listed as open, and the enrollment data likely reflects a reporting gap. No information is available on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners. Similarly, there is no data on student demographics by race or ethnicity. The absence of these details makes it difficult to describe the peer environment or the level of student support needs with any precision.
Compared to other districts in Skagit County, no comparative academic metrics could be calculated for Twin Cedars because the school’s proficiency data, graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism rate are all missing. There are eight districts in the county, and this school sits outside the comparisons that would normally position it among its neighbors.
The housing market in Concrete’s ZIP code shows home values that are notably lower than the state average and below the national average as well, which is consistent with the rural and small-town character of the area. The town’s comprehensive plan projects modest growth over the coming decades and identifies a need for more diverse housing types. Skagit Transit provides limited bus service connecting Concrete to Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon, with only a few round-trips per day, so access to a car is likely important for families.
For a parent or resident considering Twin Cedars, the central question is what kind of alternative program the school offers and for which students it is designed. The data available does not describe the school’s curriculum, staffing, course offerings, or any specific programs such as credit recovery, work-based learning, or college preparation. A family interested in this school would need to reach out to the Concrete School District directly to understand the academic pathway, the types of students the school serves, how student support is structured, and what the daily schedule and expectations look like. Without state testing results or demographic information, it is not possible to assess academic performance or student composition from the data alone. The school’s role as an alternative setting suggests it may be a good fit for students who have struggled in a larger or more traditional environment, but the specifics of who it is designed for and what outcomes it produces remain unclear from the information available.
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