Best High Schools in Zip Code 98445

ZIP code 98445 has two high schools serving different purposes: Franklin Pierce High School serves grades 9–12 and 977 students, while Academy for Community Transition serves 58 Grade 12 students in a specialized program. Franklin Pierce accounts for most high-school enrollment in the area and offers the more complete set of academic and graduation data for comparison. It is part of the Franklin Pierce School District, while Academy for Community Transition is part of the Bethel School District.

For families seeking a traditional four-year high school, Franklin Pierce shows a mixed but improving profile. In 2025–2026, 52.74% of students were proficient in English language arts and 46.07% in science, both substantially higher than district results; ELA was nearly identical to the state rate. Math was the main concern, with 23.95% proficiency, although that was an improvement of nearly six percentage points from the prior year. The school’s graduation rate was 85.7%, above the state’s 82.6%, while its 9.0% dropout rate was slightly below the state but higher than its district’s 5.3%. The school’s ranking also improved from the 25th to the 41st percentile, alongside gains in all three tested subjects.

Academy for Community Transition should not be compared directly with Franklin Pierce on conventional academic outcomes because it serves only Grade 12 and has no reported graduation, dropout, or assessment results in the available data. Its smaller enrollment and specialized mission make its spending and staffing figures different as well. District context is more favorable for Academy for Community Transition, whose district ranks in the 51st percentile compared with Franklin Pierce’s 19th percentile, but this does not establish that the specialized program has stronger high-school academic results. Overall, Franklin Pierce’s clearest strengths are ELA, science relative to its district, and graduation outcomes; math achievement and dropout reduction are the most important improvement priorities.