Summary:
ZIP code 98117 has one listed middle school, Whitman Middle School, serving grades 6–8 in Seattle’s Ballard-area community. The school enrolls 633 students and is part of Seattle School District No. 1, so families comparing middle schools within the ZIP code will find detailed information about Whitman rather than a range of local schools.
Whitman’s academic results are notably strong. In 2025–2026, proficiency was 79.48% in English Language Arts, 69.39% in Math, and 80.36% in Science—well above both district and Washington state results in every subject. Science was the school’s strongest area, while Math was the lowest of the three but still substantially ahead of comparison results. ELA performance rose by grade, from 74.09% in sixth grade to 82.74% in eighth grade. Math was more consistent, ranging from 68.04% to 70.74% across grades. Compared with the prior year, ELA and Math each improved by about 3.6 percentage points, while Science remained very strong with a small decline of about one point.
Whitman also has a consistently strong ranking history: it was 19th of 514 schools and in the 96th percentile for 2025–2026, after ranking 34th of 534 schools the previous year. The school received a five-star rating in each of the three reported ranking years. Additional context includes a reported 21.2-to-1 student-teacher ratio, $18,898 in per-student spending for 2023–2024, and a 17.06% free/reduced-price lunch rate for 2024–2025. These figures offer useful background but do not fully describe classroom experience. Overall, Whitman stands out as a high-performing school with recent academic improvement, especially in ELA and Math.
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