9517 4th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98117

Good teachers, lots of activities and extra curricular for kids, and good college prep opportunities from our church experience.

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.

We LOVE Viewlands!We have had 4 children attend at least 2 years of Viewlands between 2013 - 2021, all with very different needs, personalities, and learning styles. Every year their teachers meet our kids where they were and celebrated their strengths. While the kids have favorite teachers, who they hope to get each year, there is not a single teacher they haven't loved. Our kids always feel valued and seen by all the staff. You cannot walk down the hall without a teacher or staff member greeting a kid by name. 3 of our 4 have IEPs and all our interactions with the teachers and staff around getting updates, making sure accommodations are met, etc have been positive - with the staff often bringing up suggestions we hadn't thought of before. With one of our kids, it took us 2 years to realize she likely needed an IEP/504 because the teachers just naturally provided accommodations to her (and the rest of her class). We only formalized her accommodations to make sure we have them for when she moves on to middle school/ Junior high.Unfortunately, the diversity in the school has decreased as a result of the demographic changes in the neighborhood. While this sucks and I wish our neighborhood wasn't pushing our neighbors out, I think Viewlands does a good job trying to make sure their students & families of color still feel seen, heard, and wanted. I know they have done outreach to engage their families that may feel like they are being pushed out and to keep the community feeling united.