Best High Schools in Zip Code 98168

ZIP code 98168 has two public high schools serving grades 9–12: Foster Senior High School in Tukwila and Innovation Heights Academy in Burien, serving communities with relatively high levels of reported economic need.

Foster Senior High School is the larger school, with 910 students compared with 142 at Innovation Heights Academy. Based on the available results, Foster is the stronger choice for graduation and student persistence: its graduation rate is 89.4%, compared with 55.7% at Innovation Heights, and its dropout rate is 5.7%, compared with 13.1%. Foster also has higher reported English Language Arts proficiency, 43.46% versus 25%. Foster’s graduation rate is above the Washington state rate of 82.6%, while Innovation Heights is substantially below it. Foster is part of the Tukwila School District, whose listed ranking is lower than that of the Highline School District, serving Innovation Heights. However, the school-level results favor Foster, showing why district rankings should not replace a close look at individual schools.

Innovation Heights Academy reports advantages in resources, including a lower student-teacher ratio of 15.4 versus Foster’s 23.9 and higher spending per student, $29,560 versus $21,394. Even so, its available outcomes indicate that graduation, dropout prevention, and literacy should be major areas for attention. Foster’s main academic priorities are math and science: its proficiency rates of 18.91% and 20.17% are well below state averages, although its completion outcomes are relatively strong. Innovation Heights’ math result is suppressed and no science result is listed, so those subjects cannot be directly compared. Families should also note that Innovation Heights reports a higher free- or reduced-price lunch rate, 79.58% versus Foster’s 68.79%, and that its available historical ranking data is much older.