Enrollment
355
Elementary
DISTRICT 387 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FRANKLIN PIERCE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530294000471
Central Avenue Elementary
4505 104TH ST E, Tacoma, WA 98446 · (253) 298-3205 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL355 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.7:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.0:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
59%
210 students
DISTRICT 70% · STATE 51%
Community
0
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 | 53 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 54 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 70 | 20% |
| Grade 3 | 59 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 62 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (53) is 15% smaller than its 5th grade class (62).
Student demographics
75%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 77% · STATE 68% · 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
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
38.4%
WA avg 58.4% . -14.0pp since 2014
Math
33.7%
WA avg 51.2% . -12.7pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 38 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 34 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are down about 14 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 13 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 38.4% | 33.7% |
| 2023-24 | 42.6% | 25.1% |
| 2022-23 | 40.6% | 34.1% |
| 2021-22 | 37.0% | 31.9% |
| 2018-19 | 57.0% | 45.3% |
| 2017-18 | 51.4% | 40.4% |
| 2016-17 | 50.9% | 43.8% |
| 2015-16 | 56.0% | 50.2% |
| 2014-15 | 52.4% | 46.5% |
% Met or Exceeded Standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Smarter Balanced + WCAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
36.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
40.5%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 36% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 41% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Washington's top nor bottom 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 Central Avenue Elementary
Central Avenue Elementary's state test result (36.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Avenue Elementary this school | 355 | 59.2% | 36.2% |
| Chase Lake Elementary EDMONDS | 413 | 57.1% | 36.5% |
| Lakeland Elementary School AUBURN | 418 | 61.0% | 36.1% |
| Mountlake Terrace Elementary Mountlake Terrace | 426 | 55.4% | 40.1% |
| Jenkins Creek Elementary School Covington | 340 | 58.8% | 35.7% |
| Lynndale Elementary EDMONDS | 442 | 53.8% | 47.1% |
Matched among Washington 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 Central Avenue Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 36.2% | #699 of 936 | #112 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 33.7% | #807 of 1,103 ▲ 149 | #112 of 142 ▲ 16 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 38.4% | #790 of 1,102 ▼ 132 | #112 of 142 ▼ 19 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +1.6pp | #457 of 928 | #67 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 355 | #787 of 1,268 | #110 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.7:1 | #120 of 1,085 | #7 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 75.3% | #135 of 1,088 | #48 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 59.2% | #462 of 1,169 | #54 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -24.3% | #207 of 778 | #18 of 91 |
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
355
-13 (-4%) vs 2020
-14% since 1990-91, when it was 414
Student : Teacher
13.7:1
was 14.2:1
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 | 355 | 26 | 13.7:1 | 59% (210) |
| 2023-24 | 345 | 27 | 12.8:1 | 61% (209) |
| 2022-23 | 379 | 25 | 15.2:1 | 58% (219) |
| 2020-21 | 368 | 26 | 14.2:1 | 59% (218) |
| 2017-18 | 469 | 27.5 | 17.1:1 | 62% (290) |
| 2015-16 | 460 | 26 | 17.7:1 | 68% (315) |
| 2010-11 | 386 | 20 | 19.3:1 | 54% (208) |
| 2000-01 | 438 | 21 | 20.9:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 414 | 17 | 24.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Central Avenue Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 24% (469 to 355); teachers down 5% (27.5 to 26).
About Central Avenue Elementary
Central Avenue Elementary is a medium-sized elementary school in Tacoma, Washington, under Franklin Pierce School District. The school counts 355 students across kindergarten through 5.
Franklin Pierce School District runs Central Avenue Elementary along with 13 other schools, enrolling 7,187 students in total.
The most common group at Central Avenue Elementary is White students, at 35%. The school is also 30% Hispanic, 12% multiracial, 11% Black, and 11% Asian. The White share of the county population is higher, at 64%. The school's diversity index is 75%, meaning two students picked at random have a 75% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Central Avenue Elementary operates with 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 13.7:1. That is lower than the 17.3:1 average for elementary schools in Washington. About 59% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits. The gap from the 50% average for public schools in Pierce County is 9 points.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Central Avenue Elementary is 4.3 points below the average proficiency rate on state tests predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 36.2% actual, 40.5% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Washington.
In Pierce County (population about 930,319), the median household income is $99,564, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 31% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 6%. There are 287 public schools in Pierce County, enrolling about 138,462 students in all.
Nearby, Midland Elementary is about 1.4 miles away. Within five miles of Central Avenue Elementary, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 42.6%; Central Avenue Elementary's is 36.2%, ranking 6th of 8.
Its location is classified as Suburb: Large by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Enrollment declined 4% from its 2020-21 level of 368.
The discussion area below is open to posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Pierce County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
930,319
Census ACS
Median income
$99,564
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
31%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
287
138,462 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Franklin Pierce School District
- Washington High SchoolHigh · 989 students
- Franklin Pierce High SchoolHigh · 977 students
- Morris Ford Middle SchoolMiddle · 831 students
- Perry G Keithley Middle SchoolMiddle · 804 students
- Brookdale ElementaryElementary · 483 students
- Collins ElementaryElementary · 466 students
Other schools in Tacoma
- Stadium High SchoolHigh · 1,700 students
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 1,556 students
- Mount Tahoma High SchoolHigh · 1,410 students
- Dr. Dolores Silas High SchoolHigh · 1,160 students
- Washington High SchoolHigh · 989 students
- Franklin Pierce High SchoolHigh · 977 students
Other Central Avenue Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Central Avenue Elementary. Central Avenue Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- CENTRAL AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKISSIMMEE, FL · 529 students
Nearby schools
- Midland Elementary1.4 mi · 399
- GATES Secondary School1.6 mi · 104
- Franklin Pierce High School1.8 mi · 977
- Morris Ford Middle School1.9 mi · 831
- Woodland Elementary2.1 mi · 606
- Harvard Elementary2.1 mi · 445
Frequently asked questions
About Central Avenue ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Central Avenue Elementary?
Central Avenue Elementary enrolls approximately 355 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Central Avenue Elementary serve?
Central Avenue Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Central Avenue Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Central Avenue Elementary is approximately 13.7:1 (26 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Central Avenue Elementary?
At Central Avenue Elementary, the student body is approximately 35% White, 30% Hispanic, 11% Black, 11% Asian, 12% Two or more.
Is Central Avenue Elementary public or private?
Central Avenue Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Franklin Pierce School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.