Susitna Valley High

Susitna Valley High in Talkeetna, Alaska, is a small combined middle and high school serving grades 6 through 12 with roughly 233 students in a remote, close-knit community within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, which ranks 6th out of 23 Alaska districts with a strong 4-star overall rating. About half of the school's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — a share that has dropped from 57.5% in 2022-23 to 49.8% in 2024-25 — and the student-teacher ratio sits near 14.5 to 1, giving students the benefit of relatively small class sizes.

The school's most recent 2025-26 test results show science as its clear academic strength. All-grade science proficiency reached 45.6%, above the state's 37.8%, and at 10th grade the school's 46.2% proficiency beats both the district's 40.0% and the state's 33.0%. English language arts proficiency lands at 37.3% overall — above the state average of 32.9% but below the district's 41.5% — with notably strong results in grades 7 and 9 but weaker pockets in grades 6 and 8. Math is the persistent concern: only 27.0% of students are proficient, compared with 42.0% in the district and 32.2% statewide. Sixth-grade math and 9th-grade math are especially low at 16.7% each, suggesting students struggle at key transition points.

One of the most striking features of Susitna Valley High is how dramatically its statewide ranking has swung, from the 84th percentile in 2018-19 to the 10th percentile in 2023-24 and back to the 55th percentile most recently. With only about 30 students per grade, a single strong or weak cohort can reshape the entire school's profile from year to year. Graduation rates have also fluctuated, falling to 74% in 2023-24 before recovering to 81.4% — still below the district's 84.2%. The most recent data reflects genuine improvement from the school's low point, with science and ELA scores climbing substantially, though math has improved only modestly. For parents, this is a school with real strengths in science and a small learning environment, but math instruction in the middle grades and consistency in graduation outcomes are the clearest areas to watch.