Sehome High School

Bellingham, WA 98225

Phone: (360) 676-6481
District: Bellingham Public Schools

9

GreatSchools Rating

public • Grades 9,10,11,12 • 1148 students

Sehome High School, a public school located in Bellingham, WA, serves grades 9-12 in the Bellingham Public Schools.It has received a GreatSchools Rating of 9 out of 10, based on a variety of school quality measures.

Sehome High School is a public school located in Bellingham, WA. 1148 students attend Sehome High School.

School Ratings

Category Rating Details
Test Scores 8/10 The Test Score Rating examines how students at this school performed on standardized tests compared with other schools in the state. The Test Rating was created using 2025 Smarter Balanced Assessment data from Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and using 2025 Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science data from Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
College Readiness 10/10 The College Readiness Rating uses this high school's graduation rates, college entrance exam participation and performance, or AP, IB, or Dual Enrollment participation to determine how well schools are preparing students for success in college and beyond. The College Readiness Rating was created using 2017 Average SAT score data from Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, using the following data from the 2021 Civil Rights Data Collection: percentage of students enrolled in IB, AP or Dual Enrollment classes in grades 9-12, using 2025 4-year high school graduation rate data from Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and using 2026 demographic data from Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Posted: April 24, 2023

The teachers are extremely rude and don't offer the students emotional physical or mental support. My daughter has come home crying many times due to the teachers being so mean.

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023

Posted: December 16, 2021

Sehome High School cares only for it's outward appearance. The current principal (Sonia Cole) Has put no long lasting actions in place after 3 separate threats where put onto the school within the course of a week and a half. And when trying to "follow procedures", has caused more panic in students then calming everyone down. One of the threats put the school into a full blown lockdown and not one single person knew what was going on, nobody knew if somebody was in the school with a weapon, if somebody was outside with weapon, ETC. The whole year we've had one lockout drill and no lockdown drills. And while I understand when multiple threats are put onto your school it can be stressful and hard to go about it best but it doesn't excuse the how everything was done.

Besides all of that, the school preaches about inclusivity but the teachers and staff do absolutely nothing when students use gay as an insult or when they use abelist slurs in the classroom but when someone says a simple curse word you get shouted at to not say it?? The only positive thing about Sehome is it's generally nice students; I'm in my freshman year and I've been generally well by my peers which has helped me through the year but that HASN'T helped me through the year is the assignment and grading system; in some of my classes I excel because the teachers know how to work with students and keep them engaged but in other classes when a student isn't doing well or turning in assignments the teachers do almost nothing to help or actually figure out what's wrong and though not doing isn't entirely the teachers fault it doesn't mean when they do turn in something and get one thing wrong you give them a zero and tell them to do it all over again. This school is an absolute mess and its beautiful outward appearance does not make up for all of it's inward mistakes.

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: December 16, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

I am echoing several of the negative reviews here. We started attending this school pre-pandemic in 2018. The student orientation left my student with little to no information to orient my two students. I had to return to the school and get the missing basic needs info like passwords so that my student could log onto the system and the schedule that was handed to him. (there were only 3 people there new to the school) had errors. Both my students on two different occasions told me the orientation was lead by a student who basically found a friend in a classroom and hung out with them. This happened 2 years in a row as one of my students started a year later. Even after I brought it to the attention of the staff the first year. Parent and student access to grades are a hit or miss. They often use a zero grade of F as a placeholder until a grade is put into the system. My kids have gotten lots of lectures from me for going from A students to F. To find out later the teachers were doing this. We have had several teachers not even give grading feedback to the students bringing up that the teacher knows how the kids are doing, or know they need to work on a concept before it snowballs? One teacher only posted grades, still not graded assignment feedback until the school required the grades. This was for an AP class. Another AP class was a split class where the teacher has both a study hall in the library and a class down the hall. I am not sure that was legal. Today I just received April a note from a teacher that he/she forgot to give the students a syllabus. Which that teacher is not the only one. When you get the syllabus it is more about civic behavior, morals, values rather than laying out the academic year and grading expectations for the semester. My student came to the school excelled. Was strongly discouraged from using the program that sends kids to the community college. Then my student was told to take a full load even though he only needed 2 classes his senior year since the state we came from allowed students to start high school classes in 8th grade. I have seen a significate drop in my student's performance from being very engaged in school to "what is the point". There are times I question assignments that are filler assignments and do not follow curriculum standards and objectives. There are times a student gets graded for how well they colored when it is not an art class but a math class, etc. The rare find, an excellent teacher.

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: April 2, 2021

Posted: July 24, 2018

Homework? Seriously?! Many of the teachers never bother collecting, grading, or returning with helpful feedback.

Posted: July 24, 2018

My kids have lived all over the country, and the teachers at this school are by far the worst we've ever encountered. Most do not care about being good effective teachers. Communication with parents is poor, communication with students (outside of the classroom) is completely absent. Most only care about proselytizing about their agenda du jour during valuable class time instead of teaching the subject matter they were hired to teach. This proselytizing, among other things, directly effects student morale which is abysmally low.

Posted: July 24, 2018

I'm not sure any student graduating Sehome could even define the terms integrity, compassion, and respect. These virtues are neither taught nor modelled at Sehome High School. Again, my children have lived all over this country, and this school district is really THE WORST!

Posted: July 24, 2018

I have had no experience with this at Sehome.

Posted: July 24, 2018

Posted: July 24, 2018

Disappointing. Send your kids somewhere else...anywhere else!

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Posted: November 16, 2017

Don't be fooled. Sehome HS is a sub-standard high school. The teachers are mediocre at best, there is minimal/no school spirit and the teachers have no control over students regardless of their outrageous behavior in class. If you have a poor or average student, Sehome won't help their academics because they will be surrounded by the same. If you have a good student, do them a favor and send them to Squalicum HS or Bellingham HS where they are more likely to get on the college path. The 5 star review below sounds suspiciously like it was written by a Sehome school administrator or teacher. Be wary.

Posted: December 7, 2016

The counselors and administrators are extremely approachable and sincerely care about addressing and assisting the individual needs to best support the motivated student.

Posted: December 7, 2016

My experience as a parent as well as my child's experience has been overwhelming positive with the counselors and principals.

Posted: December 7, 2016

The school goes above to encourage discussion and enlightenment on relevant topics- bullying, diversity, and respectful courtesy.

Posted: December 7, 2016

The overall quality of teachers at Sehome translates to the educator being engaged, enthusiastic and motivated to share their area of expertise with the students.

Posted: December 7, 2016

It appears Sehome has a progressive approach to the amount and quality of homework. Typically a fair amount of homework is assigned without ridiculous time expectations.

Posted: December 7, 2016

I'm thoroughly impressed with the compassionate, competent, thoughtful teachers, administrators and counselors at Sehome. After coming from a private school experience and having children with both gifted and learning needs, I am overwhelmed by the quality and thoughtful education my children are receiving at Sehome. I'm so grateful for my children to have the opportunity to attend this school under the guidance of Mrs. Kuss-Cybula.

Posted: September 27, 2016

Typical public school - not stellar and not many great teachers. Principal cares mostly about her looks, not the 5 time/day arson on her campus or the educational accountability of her teachers. It works if you have low expectations of a the school in all regards.

Posted: September 27, 2016

Posted: September 27, 2016

Asked for IEP 3 times, was refused testing, received zero contact from teacher and student got a D....then the student was placed in class with same teacher the following year - and student is floundering again and IEP denied again. Horrible teacher.

Posted: September 27, 2016

She cares about her looks and increasing paycheck. She does not make her staff accountable.

Posted: September 27, 2016

Posted: September 27, 2016

Reviews provided by GreatSchools™

# Name Type City State Overall Rating Distance
1 Skyline Neighborhood/Subdivision Anacortes WA 16 mi
2 Fairway point Neighborhood/Subdivision Oak Harbor WA 32 mi
# Name City State Overall Rating Distance
1 Anacortes Anacortes WA 16.2 mi
2 Oak Harbor Oak Harbor WA 30.3 mi
3 Central island, along West Beach Road Coupeville WA 35.4 mi
Base Distance
Coast Guard Bellingham 2 mi.
Whidbey Island NAS 27.7 mi.
Refine Search

National Ad
Advertising Homes