Original Research by School Decision on Scriber Lake High School
Scriber Lake High School is a small alternative high school serving ninth through twelfth graders in the Edmonds School District. It is not a comprehensive high school, and its grade distribution reflects that: the student body is heavily weighted toward upperclassmen, with a large majority in twelfth grade and only a handful in ninth grade. This pattern is typical of alternative programs that often function as a pathway for students who have fallen behind or need a different setting than a traditional high school. The school’s total enrollment is modest, and its status as an alternative school means that some of the metrics parents might look for at a conventional high school are either absent or need to be interpreted with care.
State assessment results are available for a single recent year. In English language arts, roughly half of tested students met the state’s proficiency standard. In science, the figure was lower, at about three in ten. Math results were not reported at all for that year, and the district-level comparisons that typically help place a school against its neighbors were not applicable here, because the required data was missing. There is no multi-year trend to show whether performance is improving, and the graduation rate is not reported in the data. For families evaluating this school, a direct conversation with school leadership about academic outcomes and graduation pathways would be essential.
The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic minority and smaller shares of Asian and Black students. A substantial share of students come from low-income households, as measured by eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not report the share of students with disabilities or English learners, so those details are not available. The overall picture is of a small, economically diverse school that serves a population often seeking a second chance or a nontraditional route to a diploma.
Edmonds, the community where the school sits, is a residential suburb with a walkable downtown district known for arts, galleries, and festivals. It has a ferry terminal and a train station providing commuter access to Seattle. Home values are high, and rents are also elevated, reflecting demand in the broader Puget Sound region. The city’s population has been stable in recent years, with no major new housing developments identified in publicly available information. The district itself, the Edmonds School District, recently passed a construction bond to rebuild two of its oldest schools and fund upgrades across the district, and it is adopting a new K-3 literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading. Those changes affect the district broadly but no specific connection to Scriber Lake was reported.
For a family considering Scriber Lake High School, the key takeaway is that this is an alternative program with a distinct mission. The available academic data is thin and single-year, the graduation rate is not in the public data, and the typical measures used to compare schools across the county do not apply here. The school serves a relatively high-need student population in an expensive housing market. A parent would want to visit, ask about credit-recovery options, wraparound supports, and the school’s track record for moving students to graduation. The information on this page gives a starting point, but much of what matters most about a school of this kind will come from a direct conversation with staff and families who are part of it.
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