Best High Schools in Zip Code 99517

In ZIP code 99517, there is exactly one high school: West High School in Anchorage, Alaska, serving grades 9 through 12 within the Anchorage School District—a district rated 3 stars and ranked 11th out of 23 districts in the state. This large public school enrolls 1,702 students with a 21.9:1 student-teacher ratio, and 37.66% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, meaning more than a third come from lower-income households. Since no other high school exists in this ZIP code, all comparisons are made against district and state benchmarks.

West High School is a solidly mid-to-upper-tier school that has been improving its standing. Its state rank among Alaska high schools climbed from 35th in 2023–2024 to 29th in 2024–2025 and 24th in 2025–2026, placing it in the 61st percentile with a 3-star rating. The school’s graduation rate is 85.6%, which is 2.4 percentage points above the district rate. Test results show clear strengths: in English Language Arts, 41.36% of West’s 9th graders are proficient, compared to 36.91% for the district and 31.23% for the state at the same grade level. In science, 39.58% of 10th graders are proficient, beating the district’s 34.92% and the state’s 33.03%. Math is the nuanced subject: West’s 25.93% proficiency among 9th graders looks low next to district/state all-grade averages, but against same-grade peers, West outperforms both the district (23.09%) and the state (17.91%).

The most important takeaway is that West High School performs best in ELA and science, while math remains its biggest challenge—there is a 15.43-point gap between ELA and math proficiency. However, the school’s math score is actually better than the state’s 9th-grade average, so the apparent weakness is partly an artifact of comparing different grade spans. Year-over-year, ELA improved by 2.26 points, while math and science stayed roughly flat. Given that more than a third of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, West’s above-benchmark graduation rate and test scores are especially encouraging. The Anchorage School District ranks in the middle of Alaska districts, but West High School has climbed into the 61st percentile of Alaska high schools, indicating a positive trajectory for families considering this school.