Summary:
White Salmon Valley School District has two high schools in the White Salmon area, both serving grades 9–12: Columbia High School and White Salmon Academy. Together, they enroll 396 students, although the schools are very different in size. Columbia High School serves 361 students, while White Salmon Academy serves 35. The district ranks 84th among 238 Washington districts, placing it above the statewide midpoint.
Columbia High School is the stronger overall performer in the available data. Its 2024–25 graduation rate was 91.0%, compared with 72.0% at White Salmon Academy, 87.9% for the district, and 82.6% statewide. Columbia High School also has a lower student-teacher ratio, 20.2 compared with 35.0 at White Salmon Academy. Its displayed ranking improved from the 49th percentile in 2023–24 to the 61st percentile in 2025–26. For academics, Columbia’s 2025–26 English language arts proficiency was 64.77% and math proficiency was 43.82%, both above district results. Its 10th-grade math result was particularly encouraging, exceeding the state comparison by 8.4 percentage points.
The main concern at Columbia High School is science. Proficiency fell to 35.71% in 2025–26, more than 15 percentage points below the state, despite gains in English and math. White Salmon Academy has a notably lower graduation rate, but its very small size means that a few students can significantly affect yearly results. Current school-level test scores for the Academy are suppressed to protect privacy, so they should not be interpreted as zero or as evidence of poor performance. Parents comparing the schools should therefore focus on Columbia’s stronger reported outcomes, while seeking more information about Academy students’ graduation cohorts, attendance, credit completion, and available support services.
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