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What tradition at Columbia Junior High School should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
619
High
DISTRICT 510 · STATE 573
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FIFE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530288003161
Columbia Junior High School
2901 54th Avenue E, Tacoma, WA 98424 · (253) 517-1600 · Pierce County
GRADES 08–09HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL619 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 22% of Washington public high schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B+Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Washington public high schools
Student : Teacher
20.8:1
30 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.8:1 · STATE 21.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
57%
351 students
DISTRICT 57% · STATE 51%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 | 327 | 53% |
| Grade 9 | 292 | 47% |
Student demographics
77%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 76% · 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
School pathway
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Fife School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
46.3%
WA avg 58.4% . -11.6pp since 2014
Math
28.8%
WA avg 51.2% . -9.5pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 29 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 12 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 9 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 46.3% | 28.8% |
| 2023-24 | 41.8% | 21.0% |
| 2022-23 | 46.3% | 22.9% |
| 2021-22 | 46.4% | 23.0% |
| 2018-19 | 52.6% | 28.7% |
| 2017-18 | 59.4% | 50.4% |
| 2016-17 | 59.5% | 53.0% |
| 2015-16 | 61.2% | 51.1% |
| 2014-15 | 57.9% | 38.2% |
% 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
33.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
42.2%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 33% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 42% 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 Columbia Junior High School
Columbia Junior High School's state test result (33.3% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Junior High School this school | 619 | 56.7% | 33.3% |
| Lakes High School Lakewood | 1,158 | 56.3% | 36.3% |
| Fife High School Tacoma | 885 | 49.9% | 41.8% |
| Bremerton High School Bremerton | 1,263 | 55.9% | 25.6% |
| General William H. Harrison Preparatory School Lakewood | 738 | 63.1% | 44.7% |
| Franklin Pierce High School TACOMA | 977 | 64.4% | 36.8% |
Matched among Washington high 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 Columbia Junior High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 33.3% | #212 of 271 | #26 of 32 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 28.8% | #167 of 321 ▲ 47 | #13 of 32 ▲ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.3% | #247 of 327 ▲ 30 | #26 of 33 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +2.8pp | #71 of 259 | #9 of 32 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 619 | #192 of 570 | #27 of 51 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 20.8:1 | #168 of 311 | #13 of 34 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 76.7% | #19 of 316 | #8 of 35 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 56.7% | #142 of 386 | #16 of 39 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +4.0% | #103 of 136 | #14 of 17 |
Ranked against other public high 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
619
+11 (+2%) vs 2020
+15% since 2010-11, when it was 539
Student : Teacher
20.8:1
was 21.7:1
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 | 619 | 29.8 | 20.8:1 | 57% (351) |
| 2023-24 | 602 | 29.8 | 20.2:1 | 53% (317) |
| 2022-23 | 565 | 30.3 | 18.6:1 | 47% (268) |
| 2020-21 | 608 | 28 | 21.7:1 | 44% (266) |
| 2017-18 | 595 | 28.4 | 20.9:1 | 42% (250) |
| 2015-16 | 552 | 27 | 20.4:1 | 43% (240) |
| 2010-11 | 539 | 25 | 21.6:1 | 39% (211) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Columbia Junior High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 4% (595 to 619); teachers up 5% (28.4 to 29.8).
About Columbia Junior High School
Columbia Junior High School operates as a mid-sized high school in Tacoma, Washington. The school serves grades 8 through 9. Enrollment is 619 students.
Fife School District is made up of 7 schools with 3,983 students in all.
The largest group at Columbia Junior High School is White students, at 37%. It is also 23% Hispanic, 14% multiracial, 10% Black, and 8% Asian. For comparison, the population of Pierce County is roughly 64% White. The diversity index for Columbia Junior High School is 77%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Columbia Junior High School has 29.8 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 20.8:1. High schools in Washington average 21.6:1, 0.8 more students per teacher than here. A common income measure, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, is 57% at Columbia Junior High School.
Columbia Junior High School earns a C- on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 22% of Washington public high schools.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Columbia Junior High School falls in the middle 80% of Washington schools: 33.3% actual against 42.2% predicted.
In Pierce County, home to about 930,319 people, the median household earns about $99,564 a year, roughly 31% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. Columbia Junior High School shares Pierce County with 286 other public schools.
Fife Elementary School, about 0.5 miles away, is the closest public school. Within five miles of Columbia Junior High School, there are at least 8 other public schools. Columbia Junior High School is 4th of 6 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is Suburb: Large.
Enrollment was essentially flat over 4 years: 608 in 2020-21, 619 in 2024-25.
The allk12 page for Columbia Junior High School lets the school community talk about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
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 Fife School District
- Fife High SchoolHigh · 885 students
- Fife Elementary SchoolElementary · 866 students
- Surprise Lake Middle SchoolMiddle · 613 students
- Discovery Primary SchoolElementary · 506 students
- Hedden Elementary SchoolElementary · 469 students
- Fife Open DoorsHigh · 25 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
Nearby schools
- Fife Elementary School0.5 mi · 866
- Fife High School0.5 mi · 885
- Fife Open Doors0.6 mi · 25
- Chief Leschi School1.3 mi · 633
- Roosevelt Elementary School2.1 mi · 270
- Lister Elementary School2.4 mi · 376
Frequently asked questions
About Columbia Junior High SchoolHow large is Columbia Junior High School?
Columbia Junior High School enrolls approximately 619 students in grades 08-09.
What age range does Columbia Junior High School serve?
Columbia Junior High School serves students from grade 08 through grade 09.
How many teachers does Columbia Junior High School have?
Columbia Junior High School employs 30 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 20.8:1.
What is the student diversity at Columbia Junior High School?
Student demographics at Columbia Junior High School are roughly 37% White, 23% Hispanic, 10% Black, 8% Asian, 14% Two or more.
What district is Columbia Junior High School in?
Columbia Junior High School is part of Fife School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.