Annual School Report

The Humanities department has been working to create global citizens who are critical thinkers, readers, and communicators. Students have been analyzing both primary and secondary sources, crafting essays that support arguments, practicing verbal skills through group and whole class presentations, and exploring themes in history and English that embrace diversity. Students have been utilizing a newly adopted, culturally diverse curriculum that supports technological tools while building skills year to year.

The Visual and Performing Arts Department includes opportunities in drawing, sculpting, orchestra, choir, band, guitar, piano, music production and theatre. Students can also pursue IB credit in music, theatre, or art. Each of those individual arts excel yearly! All of the performance ensembles in choir, band and orchestras typically attend the local Eastshore League Festivals or other festivals such as the University of Washington-hosted adjudicated festival.

Members of our choir, orchestra and band ensembles are selected for All-State, All-Northwest, and All-National groups annually.  It is not uncommon for members of our ensembles to place at the State Solo & Ensemble. Travel opportunities for all of the ensembles include local and out-of-state adjudicated festivals and performance venues. Our Jazz groups compete both regionally (in-state or out-of-state) yearly.

The Skyline theatre department produces two plays and one musical each year and competes in the ESUUS Shakespeare Competition. The Thespian Troupe also competes in the NW Regional Thespy competition and attends the WA State Conference each year in March. From the art department, students compete in local and national competitions. In addition, a Skyline student won the 8th Congressional District’s High School Art Competition this year, (the second year in a row for an SHS student to win) and the painting will be displayed in Washington, D.C. at the Capitol for the next year. 

Business and Economics – Skyline’s DECA Chapter of 525 Business and Economics students, which is the largest in the State of Washington and 10^th largest worldwide, qualified 304 students for the State competition where 57 qualified to compete at the International Career Development Competition (ICDC). At ICDC, 18 students earned top 10 honors including one Champion. These students combined results earned Skyline’s Chapter the honor of being in the top 10 of the most successful teams worldwide in 2023 after their back-to-back world championships in 2021 and 2022.

Computer Science: Introductory and IB Computer Science classes participate in the FIRST Robotics club which won the Houston World Championships in 2018. And division semi-finalists in 2022. The club had a record membership in 2022 with 114 students. 60 students were enrolled in Introduction to Computer Science with SNAP! Blocks and 120 students in Introduction to Computer Science with Python. Even though the courses are not prerequisites for International Baccalaureate (IB) Computer Science, they are highly recommended. 35 students took the IB Computer Science Standard Level exams in the spring.

Graphic Design classes produced designs in the Adobe Creative Suite to be used by local businesses and organizations. 

Yearbook student staff used their photography and page-building software skills to successfully publish a 300+ page yearbook for our school and community. Our book from last year was selected for national recognition in the Jostens annual catalog.  

Skyline’s Mock Trial Team had another very successful year to follow up last year's success.  Skyline's Silver team took first place in the East King County District Tournament for the second year in a row, earning them an automatic bid to the State Tournament.  Skyline's Green team placed 5^th in the District Tournament and was fortunate to receive an At-Large Invitation to compete, along with Silver at State.  This was the first in person Tournament most of our members have had the chance to compete in and YMCA Youth & Government hosted an incredible event!  Both teams competed incredibly well against the most talented teams in the State and achieved the best results in our history!  Skyline Silver finished in 6^th place while the Green Team again made the Championship Round, ending as the State Runner-Up for the second year in a row.  They are currently competing in Empire Mock Trial, an online international competitive event, in order to gain additional experience and prepare for next season. 

The Skyline Forensics Club enjoyed our second year of in-person meetings and explored a number of topics including Ballistics, Blood Stain Evidence, Forensic Anthropology and Arson Investigations.  Students engaged in activities that enhanced things some members had learned in the classroom while others this was all new learning.  The new Executive Board is coming in motivated to increase membership and interest in the club and already has exciting plans for next year!

Criminal Justice classes were enhanced by a number of guest speakers this year including a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, a Washington State Patrol Detective, a number of King County Prosecutors, and two District Court Judges.  Some if the special topics covered in the course included Use of Force by Law Enforcement, Extremist Groups, Gun Rights and Gun Laws, Mock Trial, Capital Punishment and different approaches to the rehabilitation of incarcerated people.  

Police Science/Forensics classes enjoyed a great deal of interest once again and also included a new course offering.  Students were able to develop expertise in forensics techniques such as Fingerprints, various types of Impression evidence, Blood Stain evidence, Forensic Anthropology and Pathology.  Guest Speakers from King County AFIS, the FBI and Washington State Crime Lab and Washington State Patrol also added to the students' exposure to various careers they could pursue in this area.  

Computer Science: Skyline Technology Student Association (TSA) club earned top awards in Washington TSA conference held in March 2023.  Software development and Animatronics teams each won first places and Board Game Design team won third place.  The club doubled in size to 60 in 2022.

Technovation: A club that empowers women and non-binary people to code and do business completed 4 projects and one project from them was placed in the semifinalists list in the international Technovation challenge. The Technovation challenge asks students to create an app that benefits society using coding and business skills. The club spent the first half of the school year understanding these skills, and the next half is spent applying them to create an app and complete the business plan.

• We offered math classes ranging from Algebra 1 to IB Higher Level 2 taught by 18 teachers.  While the majority of our math teachers teach math their whole day we also have math teachers who teach IB Theory of Knowledge, PE, and leadership.

• Over 50 students were supported by being enrolled in lab classes that were taken concurrently with another math class.  These classes pre-teach and reteach material, build skills and work to give students more confidence and success in their regular math class.

• Had over 400 students take IB math classes.  Not only do our second year IB students in both standard and higher level take a multi-part exam in May but in the late fall they turn in a Math Exploration, which is an on average 15 pa15-pager where they discuss and work with the math involved in a chosen topic of interest.

• One of our teachers earned his CTE certification and taught both a Personal Finance and an Applied Algebra 2 course.  These courses work to emphasize real life applications while covering core math curriculum.

• Teachers continued to adjust pacing and lessons for students to deal with gaps and holes from our remote learning for COVID. Overall rigor and expectations throughout the different math levels are near pre-COVID times.

Japanese: Our Japanese students started Pen Pal program where they were exchanging letters with students at a high school in Japan. Since the initial introduction, students have kept in contact with their pen pals, and we hope that this may continue into the summer as well. Students had the opportunity to connect with native Japanese speakers who are studying in the United States. The speakers discussed their experience in the United States, and our students really enjoyed the networking opportunity.

Chinese: Our Chinese students are passionate about using the language within and beyond the classroom to collaborate in their community. Their accomplishments include co-organizing a community cultural event, establishing the Skyline chapter of the National Chinese Honor Society, and participating in and winning 3rd place in the statewide Chinese competition.

French: Madame Rigs is eager and excited to resume planning and trying to take students to France over the summer, stay tuned for info in the fall of 2023. Historically this trip runs every 2 years and is a 2 week long trip involving a 1 week homestay with a French family.

Spanish: Our Spanish students built a beautiful Día de los Muertos ofrenda to learn about this celebration in México. Our Spanish 3 classes built piñatas while learning about Las Posadas celebrations in Latin America. Our Spanish 3 and IB classes learned about the culture in Latin America through Salsa dancing workshop. Students loved this activity and we are hoping to bring back the dance workshops again next year for another great learning experience.

Special Education has worked in concert with Administration, Counseling, and General Education to provide a better more inclusive experience to all students at Skyline. We have increased the number of students served in co-taught classes or via check-in, rather than pull-out classes, to the degree that we will only run two Resource English Classes (mainly for students transitioning from LRC 2 to LRC 1) which will decrease to one next year. Also, we reduced Learning Strategies for academic behavior and Reading and Writing Labs to provide services to students in more inclusive settings. Another positive outgrowth of this increased inclusion was the ability to create Social Emotional Learning Strategies to provide direct support to students with needs in social skills or emotional regulation. This allows us to provide a safe setting for these students to practice their skills as well as for targeted interventions to be implemented. This will expand next year to add another course that will focus on anxiety and mental health, which will also include students without IEPs who also have this need. It also incorporates staff from Counseling and elsewhere. Finally, more students with IEPs will be college-ready in math due to the expansion of co-taught Geometry and the successes of Algebra 2 inclusion.

The International Baccalaureate Program operates in schools in over 150 countries across the world.  It remains one of the most respected educational organizations available to schools looking for programs of advanced study for their students.  The International Baccalaureate Program (IB) at Skyline High School offers students an opportunity to engage in rigorous college preparatory studies while enrolled in grades 11 and 12.  The school maintains three IB tracks (IB Career, IB Course and IB Diploma) that include access to over 30 IB courses of various difficulty.  Roughly 50% of eligible students are taking 1 or more IB classes, including 351 students taking part in the IB Career and IB Diploma Certificate programs.   

For more details on IB program offerings and student performance at SHS please see our IB program website.

The PE Department offered a new class, Hiking Fitness. In this class, students walked up to 10 miles a week walking the neighborhood streets and trails. Students learned about proper fitness walking form, walking safely (including what to do when you encounter a bear, which we did!), and sidewalk etiquette.

Yoga classes stretched students’ bodies and minds. Students practiced yoga three times a week while learning about 45+ different yoga poses and creating their own 30-minute yoga routine that aligns with a personal physical goal they created.

Freshman and Spartan PE classes worked collaboratively to create a new and exciting game, using two existing games.  Students applied the knowledge they obtained during the semester and aligned their game with state standards.

In Weight Training, students learned proper lifting techniques and safety considerations and performed a variety of lifts during the semester. Students tracked their progress, performing different fitness assessments, which enabled them to properly adjust their goals weekly.