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What's the best and worst thing about the food at Cougar Mountain Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
605
Middle
DISTRICT 712 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530048003158
Cougar Mountain Middle School
5108 260th St. East, Graham, WA 98338 · (253) 800-8000 · Pierce County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL605 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 64% of Washington public middle schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
20.7:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.3:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
50%
305 students
DISTRICT 59% · STATE 51%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 221 | 37% |
| Grade 7 | 200 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 184 | 30% |
Student demographics
57%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 75% · 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
50.1%
WA avg 58.4% . +4.1pp since 2014
Math
33.1%
WA avg 51.2% . -6.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 50 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 33 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are up about 4 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 7 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 50.1% | 33.1% |
| 2023-24 | 54.1% | 34.6% |
| 2022-23 | 53.0% | 31.3% |
| 2021-22 | 49.4% | 25.5% |
| 2018-19 | 60.2% | 37.7% |
| 2017-18 | 58.9% | 36.8% |
| 2016-17 | 50.9% | 36.1% |
| 2015-16 | 54.3% | 38.4% |
| 2014-15 | 46.0% | 39.7% |
% 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
43.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
46.4%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-2.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 46% 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 Cougar Mountain Middle School
Cougar Mountain Middle School's state test result (43.9% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cougar Mountain Middle School this school | 605 | 50.4% | 43.9% |
| Yelm Middle School Yelm | 652 | 51.7% | 42.4% |
| Lakewood Middle School Marysville | 668 | 50.1% | 30.2% |
| Ridgeline Middle School Yelm | 568 | 46.8% | 46.2% |
| Chehalis Middle School Chehalis | 692 | 49.3% | 40.9% |
| Woodland Middle School Woodland | 739 | 49.8% | N/A |
Matched among Washington middle 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 Cougar Mountain Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 43.9% | #123 of 294 | #17 of 45 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 33.1% | #186 of 357 ▼ 28 | #25 of 45 ▼ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.1% | #151 of 357 ▼ 34 | #20 of 45 ▼ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.2pp | #99 of 290 | #19 of 45 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 605 | #194 of 377 | #28 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 20.7:1 | #259 of 340 | #26 of 44 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 57.1% | #170 of 340 | #34 of 44 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 50.4% | #179 of 359 | #18 of 45 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -2.4% | #169 of 192 | #20 of 23 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
605
+9 (+2%) vs 2020
-14% since 2010-11, when it was 700
Student : Teacher
20.7:1
was 19.9:1
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 | 605 | 29.2 | 20.7:1 | 50% (305) |
| 2023-24 | 605 | 29.1 | 20.8:1 | 52% (317) |
| 2022-23 | 614 | 30.1 | 20.4:1 | 54% (334) |
| 2020-21 | 596 | 30 | 19.9:1 | 46% (272) |
| 2017-18 | 620 | 30.4 | 20.4:1 | 48% (297) |
| 2015-16 | 578 | 29 | 19.9:1 | 48% (278) |
| 2010-11 | 700 | 33 | 21.2:1 | 28% (193) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cougar Mountain Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 2% (620 to 605); teachers down 4% (30.4 to 29.2).
About Cougar Mountain Middle School
Cougar Mountain Middle School is one of the public schools in Graham, Washington. It is a mid-sized middle school. It teaches 605 students in grades 6 through 8.
Bethel School District is responsible for 39 schools, Cougar Mountain Middle School included, with 21,732 students in all.
White students are 61% of those enrolled at Cougar Mountain Middle School. Other reported shares: 21% Hispanic and 12% multiracial. That is in line with Pierce County, where about 64% of residents are White. A diversity index of 57% means there is a 57% chance two randomly chosen students at Cougar Mountain Middle School are from different groups.
A staff of 29.2 full-time-equivalent teachers puts the student-to-teacher ratio at 20.7:1. The average for middle schools in Washington, 18.9:1, is lower. The share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch is 50%. Public schools in Pierce County average a similar 50%.
On the allk12 Grade, Cougar Mountain Middle School lands at B, ahead of 64% of Washington public middle schools.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Cougar Mountain Middle School is -2.5 points: 43.9% actual, 46.4% predicted.
The school's county is Pierce County. According to Census Bureau estimates, median household income comes to about $99,564, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. There are 287 public schools in the county, enrolling about 138,462, Cougar Mountain Middle School among them.
Rocky Ridge Elementary, about 0.8 miles away, is the closest public school. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Of the 9 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Cougar Mountain Middle School is 5th on average proficiency.
Federal data place Cougar Mountain Middle School in the Suburb: Large locale, which means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The student count changed little between 2020-21 (596) and 2024-25 (605).
People can post here about homework, tutoring, and testing dates and other school topics. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Bethel School District
- Graham Kapowsin High SchoolHigh · 2,087 students
- Spanaway Lake High SchoolHigh · 1,787 students
- Bethel High SchoolHigh · 1,688 students
- Liberty Middle SchoolMiddle · 857 students
- Spanaway Middle SchoolMiddle · 766 students
- Cedarcrest Middle SchoolMiddle · 765 students
Other schools in Graham
- Graham Kapowsin High SchoolHigh · 2,087 students
- Frontier Middle SchoolMiddle · 620 students
- Centennial ElementaryElementary · 540 students
- Nelson Elementary SchoolElementary · 497 students
- North Star ElementaryElementary · 446 students
- Rocky Ridge ElementaryElementary · 430 students
Other Cougar Mountain Middle schools
One other US public school is named Cougar Mountain Middle. Cougar Mountain Middle School is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Cougar Mountain Middle SchoolIssaquah, WA · 616 students
Nearby schools
- Rocky Ridge Elementary0.8 mi · 430
- Centennial Elementary1.2 mi · 540
- Bethel High School2.5 mi · 1,688
- Bethel Middle School2.8 mi · 661
- Shining Mountain Elementary2.9 mi · 613
- North Star Elementary2.9 mi · 446
Frequently asked questions
About Cougar Mountain Middle SchoolHow many students attend Cougar Mountain Middle School?
Cougar Mountain Middle School enrolls approximately 605 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Cougar Mountain Middle School serve?
Cougar Mountain Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Cougar Mountain Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Cougar Mountain Middle School is approximately 20.7:1 (29 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Cougar Mountain Middle School?
At Cougar Mountain Middle School, the student body is approximately 61% White, 21% Hispanic, 1% Black, 2% Asian, 12% Two or more.
Is Cougar Mountain Middle School public or private?
Cougar Mountain Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Bethel School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.