1
If you could change one rule at Pioneer Peak Elementary, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
449
Elementary
DISTRICT 344 · STATE 277
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MATANUSKA-SUSITNA BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 020051000565
Pioneer Peak Elementary
1959 N Stringfield Rd, Palmer, AK 99645 · (907) 861-5700 · Matanuska-Susitna Borough
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY41-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL449 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 87% of Alaska public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alaska public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.8:1 · STATE 15.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
39%
177 students
DISTRICT 53% · STATE 65%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 61 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 53 | 12% |
| Grade 2 | 86 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 73 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 92 | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 84 | 19% |
This year's kindergarten class (61) is 27% smaller than its 5th grade class (84).
Student demographics
49%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 51% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
AK STAR + Alaska Science 2024-25 . % Advanced + ProficientEnglish Language Arts
50.6%
AK avg 36.1% . +5.7pp since 2023
Math
62.2%
AK avg 34.6% . +9.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the AK STAR + Alaska Science, Alaska's statewide test, about 51 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 62 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alaska schools, those numbers are about 36 and 35. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 10 points.
AK STAR + Alaska Science results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 50.6% | 62.2% |
| 2023-24 | 44.9% | 52.4% |
% Advanced + Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: AK STAR + Alaska Science. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of AK schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
57.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
39.8%
based on AK schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+17.6pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 57% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 40% typical for Alaska schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 18 points, placing it in Alaska's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Pioneer Peak Elementary
Pioneer Peak Elementary's state test result (57.4% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Peak Elementary this school | 449 | 39.4% | 57.4% |
| Cottonwood Creek Elementary Wasilla | 422 | 37.9% | 48.4% |
| Finger Lake Elementary Wasilla | 445 | 41.3% | 45.8% |
| Kalifornsky Beach Elementary Soldotna | 384 | 45.1% | 44.4% |
| John Shaw Elementary Wasilla | 507 | 41.2% | 64.9% |
| Teeland Middle School Wasilla | 643 | 39.7% | 40.6% |
Matched among Alaska elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Pioneer Peak Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alaska | In Matanuska-Susitna Borough |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 57.4% | #19 of 134 | #3 of 19 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 62.2% | #16 of 150 ▲ 15 | #3 of 23 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.6% | #28 of 150 ▲ 19 | #4 of 23 ▲ 6 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 449 | #10 of 169 | #5 of 27 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.5:1 | #49 of 125 | #10 of 22 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 48.6% | #108 of 125 | #19 of 22 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 39.4% | #80 of 142 | #17 of 21 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +3.5% | #14 of 15 | #6 of 7 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
449
+51 (+13%) vs 2020
-17% since 1990-91, when it was 541
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
was 16.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 449 | 29 | 15.5:1 | 39% (177) |
| 2023-24 | 471 | 31.5 | 14.9:1 | 35% (165) |
| 2022-23 | 513 | 28 | 18.3:1 | 35% (177) |
| 2020-21 | 398 | 24 | 16.6:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 434 | 25 | 17.4:1 | 32% (141) |
| 2015-16 | 423 | 26 | 16.3:1 | 32% (134) |
| 2010-11 | 344 | 22 | 15.6:1 | 24% (81) |
| 2000-01 | 457 | 26 | 17.6:1 | 17% (78) |
| 1990-91 | 541 | 25 | 21.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Pioneer Peak Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 3% (434 to 449); teachers up 16% (25 to 29).
About Pioneer Peak Elementary
Pioneer Peak Elementary is an elementary school in Palmer, Alaska, and it is part of Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. It enrolls 449 students in 2024-25. The grades offered are pre-K through 5. That is 62% larger than the average of about 277 students for elementary schools in Alaska.
The district for Pioneer Peak Elementary is Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, with 49 schools and 19,495 students.
At Pioneer Peak Elementary, 69% of students are White. Smaller groups are 14% multiracial, 9% Hispanic, and 5% Native American. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 49, compared with 70 nationally.
Its staff includes 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, for about 15.5 students per teacher. That is in line with the 15.3:1 average for elementary schools in Alaska. Roughly 39% of students at Pioneer Peak Elementary can receive free or reduced-price lunch.
Among Alaska public elementary schools, Pioneer Peak Elementary outscored 87%, which works out to an A on the allk12 Grade.
Schools in Alaska with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to post an average proficiency rate across its state test results near 39.8%. Pioneer Peak Elementary posts 57.4%, 17.6 points above that, which places it in the top 10% statewide on BeatsExpectations.
American Community Survey estimates for Matanuska-Susitna Borough show that the median household earns about $94,031 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 24%, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Across Matanuska-Susitna Borough, 49 public schools serve about 19,495 students.
A public school about 0.9 miles away, Colony Middle School, is the closest to Pioneer Peak Elementary. Pioneer Peak Elementary has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Pioneer Peak Elementary comes in 1st of 4 nearby schools on average proficiency.
The school's locale code, Rural: Fringe, means it is in rural territory close to an urban area.
Enrollment in 2024-25 stood at 449, compared with 398 in 2020-21. In 2020-21, the student-to-teacher ratio was 16.6:1; by 2024-25 it was 15.5:1.
Use the discussion section to ask about special education services, counseling, and support programs at Pioneer Peak Elementary. You can also rate the school on this page.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
112,988
Census ACS
Median income
$94,031
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
24%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
49
19,495 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District
- Mat-Su Central SchoolCombined · 2,780 students
- Colony High SchoolHigh · 1,046 students
- Wasilla High SchoolHigh · 816 students
- Colony Middle SchoolElementary · 771 students
- Mat-Su Career & Tech Ed High SchoolHigh · 705 students
- Teeland Middle SchoolElementary · 643 students
Other schools in Palmer
- Colony High SchoolHigh · 1,046 students
- Colony Middle SchoolElementary · 771 students
- Palmer High SchoolHigh · 616 students
- Palmer Middle SchoolMiddle · 563 students
- Birchtree Charter SchoolElementary · 416 students
- Sherrod ElementaryElementary · 383 students
Nearby schools
- Colony Middle School0.9 mi · 771
- Colony High School1.1 mi · 1,046
- Birchtree Charter School1.1 mi · 416
- Mat-Su Middle College School1.6 mi · 222
- Finger Lake Elementary2.1 mi · 445
- Valley Pathways2.6 mi · 143
Frequently asked questions
About Pioneer Peak ElementaryHow many students attend Pioneer Peak Elementary?
Pioneer Peak Elementary enrolls approximately 449 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Pioneer Peak Elementary serve?
Pioneer Peak Elementary serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Pioneer Peak Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Pioneer Peak Elementary is approximately 15.5:1 (29 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Pioneer Peak Elementary?
At Pioneer Peak Elementary, the student body is approximately 69% White, 9% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 14% Two or more.
Is Pioneer Peak Elementary public or private?
Pioneer Peak Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.