Summary:
Zip code 99835 in Sitka, Alaska, contains 7 schools serving about 1,502 students across grades PK-12: 2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 3 high schools, and 1 alternative school. Six belong to the Sitka School District, ranked #1 of 23 Alaska districts with a 5-star rating; Mt. Edgecumbe High School belongs to the Mount Edgecumbe district, ranked 17 of 23 with a 2-star rating. The zip code is unusual because it pairs one of the state's best districts with a separate, struggling one in the same community.
Sitka High School is the standout traditional high school, ranking 10th of 62 Alaska high schools (84th percentile) with a 93.5% graduation rate and proficiency well above state averages in ELA, math, and science. Blatchley Middle School ranks 19th of 90 middle schools, with roughly half of students proficient in ELA, math, and science. Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary ranks 46th of 166 elementary schools and posts the zip code's highest science proficiency at 64.91%. By contrast, Mt. Edgecumbe High School reports a perfect 100% graduation rate but the lowest test scores in the zip code—just 10.53% math proficiency—while serving the highest-poverty population at 76.78% free/reduced lunch.
Graduation rates differ sharply among high schools: 100% at Mt. Edgecumbe, 93.5% at Sitka High, 60% at Pacific High, and 33.3% at Sitka REACH. The latter two are small alternative or credit-recovery programs and should not be compared head-to-head with Sitka High; Sitka REACH even posts decent proficiency in small samples (50% ELA, 42.86% math). Nearly every Sitka district school beats Alaska state averages, supporting the #1 district ranking. Some data gaps exist—Xoots Elementary (PK-1) is untested, Pacific High lacks recent scores, and Sitka REACH omits some reporting—but overall, 99835 offers a high-performing local district alongside Mt. Edgecumbe, where poverty, graduation, and test scores form a far more complicated story.
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