6552 Cleopatra Place NW
Seattle, WA 98117

I had a pretty good experience here after transferring from another school. The building itself could really use an extra wing, though. Most of the hallways and staircases are so narrow and they get extremely packed when kids get out of class, to the point that I genuinely believe there would be causalities in the event of a fire, for example. The only open spaces where you can stop getting pushed around is 2 of the entrances and a cafeteria. Seriously, as schools get more populated, this place would give me claustrophobia if they tried to accommodate more kids. Also a LOT of the students tried to peer pressure me into buying coke lmao, what a waste of money. Mostly good teachers though.

I am writing from my own family's perspective. My child is smart, capable and attentive -- and students like this are utterly ignored at Whitman, save by a few very skilled and committed teachers. I cannot speak to other types of students or the school's or district's efforts to support them. But over three years at Whitman (one entirely remote during the pandemic, and we were willing to give the school a pass there), my child only worked hard and learned in only a few classes. The rest of the time she was BORED and unchallenged and routinely just left to read on her own, or watch videos on her phone, or whatever when she finished her work. That is unacceptable. Summary: - A few math teachers and one history teacher were excellent and managed to teach appropriately to the wide variety of skill levels of students in the class. Which is hard to do, I understand, but it should be managed better than this.- The rest of her teachers were not unpleasant. They just mostly failed to teach smart kids who learn quickly. She spent hours every day doing nothing. I don't think she read an entire book and did a thorough project/book report in English class over three years. (There was some in-class, out-loud reading; strange for an 8th grade class.) There was almost nothing substantive in science, over all three years, and no real hands-on experiments. - There is a serious lack of electives available. If your student does not do Spanish or music (highly recommend doing these, if your child goes to Whitman!), which continue through the whole year, there are simply not enough semester-long options for the kids to take. So they end up being "TAs," which essentially means doing nothing, again. No one told us that in advance. We were really disappointed with this school. We expected better from Seattle Public Schools. Highly capable students should be able to receive a solid education from their neighborhood school. We were not asking for amazing, just for pretty good.

Our daughter went a while at this school and it's about the politics! My daughter was beaten up 3 times in one week. I met the principal in the hall and they turned around and walked the other way, avoiding me, which angered me as I called out their name. Finally after nothing was done about my daughter being beaten up 3 times in one week, we pulled her out and put her in private school, where she got the best education because she could focus on schooling rather than being beaten up! She felt safe & we're glad we pulled her out. She was/is much happier and was a straight A student after that in every grade!