Summary
Curtis Senior High is a large public school in University Place, Washington, serving grades 10–12 and 1,321 students in the highly rated University Place School District. The area offers a strong districtwide educational environment: the district ranks 11th out of 238 Washington districts, in the 95th percentile statewide. Curtis ranks 56th of 396 Washington high schools for 2025–26, placing it in the 86th percentile with four stars.
The school’s clearest strengths are English language arts, graduation, and keeping students on track. In 2025–26, 82.87% of students were proficient in ELA, compared with 72.96% in the district and 52.81% statewide. Curtis’s 2024–25 graduation rate was 96.2%, while its dropout rate was just 1.1%. These results compare favorably with nearby Steilacoom High, which had an 91.3% graduation rate, and most Tacoma-area schools. Curtis also shows strong effectiveness across several student groups, including students from low-income households and students receiving special education services. Its 36.79% free/reduced-price lunch rate indicates a more economically mixed population than Steilacoom High’s 27.17%.
For parents, the main academic caution is that Curtis is not equally strong in every subject. Math proficiency was 50.00% in 2025–26—above the state’s 43.11% but 12.59 percentage points below the district’s 62.59%. Science proficiency was 53.16%, also below the district’s 60.51% and down from 60.00% the previous year. Even so, Curtis exceeded nearby General William H. Harrison Preparatory School in ELA, math, and science, and its overall combination of strong ELA, high graduation, low dropout rates, and broad student-group effectiveness makes it one of the strongest nearby comprehensive high schools. Its 24.8 student-teacher ratio is somewhat high, consistent with its large enrollment.
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