Rainier Prep

Mission

Rainier Prep's mission is to prepare all students to excel at four-year colleges and to become leaders in their communities.

Description

Rainier Prep Public Charter School is an inclusion-model public school welcoming 360 students in 5th-8th grades, with a proudly diverse population of over 95% BIPOC students. We serve over 80% limited-income families through our middle school, which is located on the border of South Seattle and Burien. Rainier Prep has consistently delivered on our promise to provide high-quality academic challenge for families experiencing the most obstacles to college degrees and to representation in positions of leadership and power.

Rainier Prep is an excellent, open-enrollment public school that admits on a lottery basis.  Anyone can apply, and there are no restrictions to enrollment.  We ensure that academic growth, student agency, and college success programming mutually reinforce each other.  Rainier Prep's students have demonstrated significant academic success every year, as our students' English Language Arts, Math and Science performance averages well above our local district schools as well as Washington State, especially when aggregated by race. In comparison, our local district schools' proficiency scores remain constant or decline. Although the majority of students enter Rainier Prep behind grade level in reading and math, they graduate achieving well-above grade level and fully prepared to join 500+ alums for success in Seattle's public, private, and parochial high schools.

However, despite excellent financial management when compared to local schools, the reality is that our lack of access to levy funding will continue to keep our expenses higher than our revenue.  While WA state K-12 "general" funding is distributed equitably to all public schools, charter schools are not entitled to any local levy funds.  We provide a higher-quality education efficiently at a lower cost than our local schools, and we must do so with only basic state funding to cover increasing expenses. This year, that means a $2,500 funding gap per Rainier Prep student, and almost $9 million inaccessible since our inception, that could otherwise advance our students' success.  

Recognition

In 2013, our community's families advocated for a public middle school that would transform the outcomes for their students. We are grateful for our staff, our board, and our funding partners who choose to sustain our work and to amplify the hopes and vision of this community. With increased support, our students will continue to see themselves as assets in education, in their career pathways, and in their communities.