Original Research by School Decision on Curtis Senior High
Curtis Senior High is the comprehensive high school for the University Place School District, serving grades ten through twelve in a largely suburban city on the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound. The school carries the name “Senior High” for a reason: it enrolls only upperclassmen, with a student body that draws from the district’s single ninth-grade campus. That structure means the building is a focused environment for older teenagers, and it shapes everything from the academic offerings to the social dynamics.
Academically, Curtis presents a mixed profile that parents will want to examine closely. On state assessments—the Smarter Balanced in English and math, and the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science—the school’s all-student proficiency rates in English language arts place it in a strong position among its counterparts. Math proficiency, however, runs notably lower, a gap that persists even when looking at the school’s overall performance across tested subjects. Science scores sit between these two poles. Because the school’s state testing data for the most recent year is largely suppressed for grade-level reporting, the multi-year trend lines provide the clearest picture, and they show a single year of data only. A parent considering Curtis should ask for detail on how the school supports students who arrive below benchmark in math and whether the curriculum pathways, including Advanced Placement and career and technical offerings, are structured to address that gap.
The student body is diverse by race and ethnicity. White students make up the largest share, followed by students who identify as two or more races, Hispanic students, Asian students, and Black students, with smaller populations of Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and American Indian or Alaska Native students. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school in a moderate range for Pierce County. The school’s enrollment is sizable for a grade-ten-through-twelve configuration, and the community context matters when interpreting that: University Place is a built-out suburban city with a mix of established neighborhoods and newer development, a low housing vacancy rate, and a housing market that, by recent measures, is somewhat above the state benchmark in value. Rents have risen moderately. The city has no true downtown; its commercial and civic life centers on the Bridgeport Way corridor, where the city is working toward a mixed-use town center. For families, that means school facilities are on separated campuses spread through residential areas, and the connection to the larger Tacoma metro is a short drive.
The district itself has not been the subject of major, publicly confirmed changes in recent years that would alter a parent’s decision-making. That stability can be read either way: it suggests continuity in leadership and programming, but it also means that any concerns about academic performance or resource allocation are likely to be persistent rather than transitional. The school’s graduation rate data was not available in the current reporting, so a parent should seek that figure directly from the school or district to complete the picture.
For a family weighing Curtis, the main questions are about math achievement and the fit of a senior-high-only structure. If a student arrives with solid math skills and is looking for a broad, stable high school experience in a suburban setting with access to regional amenities, Curtis provides a straightforward path. For students who need math support or who thrive in a four-year high school cohort model, the configuration warrants a closer look. The school’s strengths in English language arts and its position within a district that serves a generally stable, mixed-income community give it a solid baseline, but the math data is a soft spot that a parent should probe with the school directly.
See more original research from School Decision →