The reported proficiency rate for Science is 27%.
Original Research by School Decision on Dishman Hills High School
Dishman Hills High School is an alternative school serving grades eight through twelve in Spokane, part of the West Valley School District. With a modest enrollment for its grade band, the school is designed for students who may benefit from a non-traditional academic setting. Its alternative designation means it is not a comprehensive neighborhood high school but rather a smaller, more targeted program for students who may have struggled in a conventional environment or are pursuing an individualized path toward graduation.
State testing data is only partially available for this school. For the most recent year, mathematics and English language arts proficiency results for eighth graders were suppressed, meaning the tested group was too small to report publicly. Science results were reported and showed that more than a quarter of tested students met the proficiency standard, a level that sits below the midpoint of schools across the county. No multi-year trend data exists, so it is not possible to tell whether performance is improving or declining. Because alternative schools often serve a student population that arrives below grade level, a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how academic progress is measured and what supports are in place.
Enrollment skews heavily toward upper grades, with the largest group in twelfth grade and very few eighth graders. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a high-poverty context. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic presence and smaller shares of students who identify as two or more races, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Asian, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a family with a child in one of those groups would want to confirm directly with the school what services are offered.
The school sits in Spokane, the economic and cultural hub of the Inland Northwest, a city with a diversified economy anchored by healthcare, government, education, military, and logistics. The housing market in the surrounding zip code is relatively affordable compared to western Washington, with home values and rents both rising modestly. The West Valley School District, which operates Dishman Hills, did not have publicly reported recent bond or levy information or strategic priorities available in the research used here, so district-level context is thin.
Compared to other districts in Spokane County, this school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades falls in the bottom quartile. That placement is unsurprising for an alternative school, which typically enrolls students who are credit-deficient or who have had difficulty in mainstream settings. The comparison is based on district-level data since the school itself is the only one of its type in the county to be measured this way, so the gap is best understood as reflecting the different mission rather than a straightforward measure of quality.
What Dishman Hills provides is a smaller, alternative pathway toward a diploma, likely with more flexible scheduling, individualized attention, and supports for students who have not thrived in larger traditional high schools. Families considering this school should weigh its specialized environment and the reasons their child might need it against the limited standardized testing picture and the clear challenges the student population faces. The school may fit a student who needs a reset or a different approach, but the academic outcomes as measured are low, and the data does not offer much detail on post-graduation readiness, career programs, or other outcomes that matter for that population. A call to the school to discuss its specific program offerings and student support model is advisable.
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