Barrow High School

Barrow High School is a public high school located in Utqiagvik, Alaska, serving grades 9-12 with a total enrollment of 266 students. The school is part of the North Slope Borough School District, which is ranked 22 out of 24 districts in Alaska and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Barrow High School has consistently ranked in the bottom tier of Alaska high schools over the past decade, with a current ranking of 59 out of 60 schools for the 2024-2025 school year.

Barrow High School significantly underperforms the state and district averages across various standardized test metrics. In the 2024-2025 school year, only 27.45% of students were proficient or better in Science, compared to the state average of 37.87%. Similarly, only 10.71% of students were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to the state average of 32.69%. The school's performance in Mathematics is even more concerning, with only 5.45% of students proficient or better, compared to the state average of 32.18%. The school's performance is particularly concerning for certain student subgroups, ranking 42 out of 45 Alaska high schools for female students and 48 out of 48 for male students in recent years.

Barrow High School's remote location in the northern region of Alaska may present unique challenges, such as difficulty in attracting and retaining high-quality teachers, limited access to educational resources, and the impact of harsh environmental conditions on student learning and well-being. The only nearby school, Kiita Learning Community, is also part of the North Slope Borough School District and has a similar low performance profile, ranking 88 out of 139 Alaska high schools in 2013-2014. This lack of higher-performing comparison schools in the immediate vicinity may limit the ability of Barrow High School to learn from and emulate successful practices.