Lake Washington High School

not bad but not horrible. overall ok

Two of my children are currently enrolled in LWHS, a freshman and a junior. Both play multiple sports. Both speak multiple languages. Both are avid musicians. Neither is a 4.0 student... neither is likely to play competitive sports beyond high school... neither but both are gifted minds in able bodies, with no significant measurable variation from the mean. Despite it being in one of the highest cost-of-living neighborhoods in the country, my partner and I chose LWHS, in large part because of its reputation as an institution of learning to prepare our children for the realities and challenges they will encounter in the world when they graduate--competitive college admissions, a competitive high-tech urban workforce, rich community & civil service opportunities--with a full repertoire problem solving & reasoning skills, open-mindedness, and technical aptitudes.There will always be some teachers who appreciate and work to develop the natural talents, creativity and curiosity a young boy or girl brings to the class, and there will be some who are intimidated by those who simply approach subjects from different points of view or with different values. But when teachers use their position to penalize and denigrate students for pursuing peripheral projects or making cases for other points of view, they need to be held to account.What has zero place in public schools is religious propaganda, and at LWHS illiberal propaganda seems to find its way into the curriculum of every class. Instead of being taught how to think, too often my children are taught what to think (or else). Instead of being challenged to open their minds, too often my children are taught to banish from their minds to heterodox forms of thought. Instead of being praised for leadership, creativity, critical thinking, and strategic risk-taking, too often my children are encouraged to toe the line and mindlessly regurgitate the dogma.LWHS is not the worst high school. My children will graduate and will look back fondly at their high school years, years full of forging friendships, rallying around teammates, crushing on puppy-love-interests, standing up to bullies (personal & institutional), celebrating victories and lamenting losses, and charismatic teachers posing probing questions and mind-blowing topics. Those are the highlights of the high school experience in retrospect. But the things great schools measures do not a great school constitute.

I've honestly had a really bad in school experience and plan on transferring to a new school for my sophomore year because of my experience. The teachers are honestly terrible and you can tell they are only doing what they are doing because it brings in a paycheck. Not that they do much besides make their students hate school more than ever. My favorite subject has always been English, I've always excelled and I even had a school that had to make a special program for me and like four other people because we were so advanced. But now I hate English and am actually failing because my teacher doesn't explain things. Its actually kind of ironic that we are doing online school now because I was begging to drop out and do online school till I transfer next year. And the way teachers would do things before quarantine was to give no explanation and all online work. I can't tell a difference between the teaching style before quarantine and now. The only reason I didn't give this one star is because we have amazing sports, clubs, and arts programs. Without those I honestly wouldn't have even started going to LW. I only went because my other option has barely any clubs and the arts program sucks.

Excellent school with great variety of clubs, lots of AP courses to choose from and tons of clubs and sports opportunities. Well run honor society and wonderful parent support through PTSA and volunteering.

Challenging curriculum, great kids, and lots of activities. I'd highly recommend this school to anyone.