Original Research by School Decision on Alternative Tamarack School
Alternative Tamarack School is a small regular public school within Spokane Public Schools, serving grades seven through twelve in Spokane, Washington. Its name signals an alternative setting, and the data bears that out in its size and scale. With a total enrollment in the single digits and at least one student in each grade from seventh through eleventh, this is an unusually small learning environment. Twelfth grade reported zero enrolled students. The student body is racially diverse, with students identified as Asian, white, and two or more races represented.
State testing data for the 2023-24 school year in math, English language arts, and science is entirely suppressed, meaning results are not reported publicly. This is common for schools with very small enrollment counts, where releasing data could identify individual students. A parent should understand that standardized test performance simply cannot be evaluated from the available information. The graduation rate is also absent, and for the same reason: the school is so small that the data is not published.
The housing market in Spokane is relatively affordable compared to western Washington. Home values are around the national median, and rents are modest relative to the rest of the state. Home values have seen a slight year-over-year decline, and rents have dipped as well, which may matter to families considering a move. The broader Spokane economy has diversified beyond its historical reliance on mining, timber, and agriculture into healthcare, government, education, and logistics. Fairchild Air Force Base, Providence Health Care, and Amazon are among the largest employers. The city itself is the economic and cultural hub of the Inland Northwest, with a genuine downtown core along the Spokane River, Riverfront Park, and a compact walkable center that hosts large events like Bloomsday and Hoopfest.
Spokane Public Schools has recently concluded a major bond-funded construction program that opened three new middle schools in 2022 and 2023, reshaping feeder patterns and capacity across the district. That facility investment is a durable change families in the district will feel for years.
What does all this add up to for a family considering Alternative Tamarack School? The defining feature is its extraordinary scale. With fewer than ten students across six grade levels, this is not a conventional middle or high school experience. A parent looking for the typical markers of school quality like state test scores, a published graduation rate, or a wide array of course offerings will find those metrics absent. The school is part of a large district that has invested heavily in new buildings, but this particular school sits far outside the ordinary district experience. It is hard to draw any conclusion about academic performance from the available data. A family considering this school would likely already know its specific purpose and student population, as it serves a small group for whom the mainstream setting did not fit. For anyone else, the lack of published outcomes makes it impossible to judge academic strength or weakness. This is a place that answers a narrow need, and the data offers no evidence on whether it meets that need well.
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