Glacier Middle School, Seatac WA

Original Research by School Decision on Glacier Middle School

Glacier Middle School serves sixth through eighth graders in SeaTac, a city organized around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The school is part of Highline Public Schools, a district that has been modernizing its facilities and adding choice-school options in recent years. Families considering Glacier will want to pay close attention to the school’s academic picture, because the state assessment results for the most recent school year show proficiency rates that are very low across the board.

In both English language arts and math, Glacier students’ performance sits in the bottom quartile relative to other middle schools in King County. Across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, the share of students meeting state standards in math is in the very low single digits. ELA proficiency falls at a similar level. Science results for eighth graders are also low. These figures are drawn from Washington’s state assessments and cover all students at the school. A family reading these results should understand that for nearly every subject and grade, the vast majority of students are not reaching the proficiency benchmark.

One year of data does not allow a trend analysis, but the numbers are consistent enough across subjects and grades to give a clear picture of the current academic starting point. A parent may want to ask the school about the specific instructional strategies, intervention programs, or curriculum changes in place to address these results. The school may have more context about the trajectory it sees.

Glacier is a regular public school and is not a charter, magnet, or Title I school, according to available data. The student body is large for a middle school. Its composition is predominantly Hispanic, with Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, white, two-or-more-races, and American Indian or Alaska Native students making up the rest. A very substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating a community with significant economic need. Data on special education and English learner populations were not available in the records that were provided.

The school’s environment and support structures data, including discipline, staff qualifications, and course access, were also not included in the information at hand. A family may want to follow up directly with Glacier or the district on those topics.

SeaTac is a designated regional growth center that has seen steady population gains in recent years. The city is auto-oriented, with wide arterials and airport infrastructure shaping daily life, though three Link light rail stations provide transit connections to downtown Seattle and beyond. The housing market in the area shows a median home value that, while lower than the Seattle metro core, remains elevated relative to national averages, and the city’s housing stock is renter-majority. The dominant employer is the airport, with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air headquartered in SeaTac.

Glacier sits within a district that has been undergoing a number of changes. Highline Public Schools is in the middle of a multi-year school modernization program, with several schools operating at interim sites during construction or relocation. The district has also expanded its choice school offerings, adding Innovation Heights Academy to existing options such as Maritime High School, Big Picture, and Highline Virtual Academy. These developments mean that a student’s middle school path at Glacier could connect to a different set of high school options than families might assume, and the district’s boundaries and feeder patterns are in flux.

For a family weighing Glacier Middle School, the central fact is the state test results. The school serves a diverse, low-income community in a job-rich but housing-costly corner of King County, and it belongs to a district that is actively investing in its physical plant and programmatic variety. But the data on student proficiency raises serious questions that any prospective family would want to explore with the school and district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 20% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 43 pts below county median

Grade 712%

School 12% · District 20% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 43 pts below county median

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 18% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 30% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 31% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 47 pts below county median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 33% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 50 pts below county median

Science

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 27% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

This schoolHighline 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-income26%Higher-income38%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income14%Higher-income25%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income14%Higher-income21%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income12%Higher-income26%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income10%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income7%Higher-income18%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income17%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income10%Higher-income15%6 pp gap