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Alumni: what's one memory from Decatur High School that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,352
High
DISTRICT 711 · STATE 573
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FEDERAL WAY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530282000434
Decatur High School
2800 SW 320TH ST, FEDERAL WAY, WA 98023 · (253) 945-5200 · King County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,352 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of Washington public high schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- CThree-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
20.9:1
65 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.6:1 · STATE 21.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
65%
876 students
DISTRICT 72% · 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 9 | 336 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 306 | 23% |
| Grade 11 | 368 | 27% |
| Grade 12 | 342 | 25% |
Student demographics
79%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 79% · 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
36.5%
WA avg 58.4% . +31.7pp since 2014
Math
11.7%
WA avg 51.2% . +10.5pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 37 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 12 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 32 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 10 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 36.5% | 11.7% |
| 2023-24 | 38.5% | 10.1% |
| 2022-23 | 39.4% | 12.1% |
| 2021-22 | 41.4% | 13.7% |
| 2018-19 | 47.0% | 18.8% |
| 2017-18 | 53.7% | 22.4% |
| 2016-17 | 12.0% | 10.2% |
| 2015-16 | 13.6% | 5.4% |
| 2014-15 | 4.8% | 1.2% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of WA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
20.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.7%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-16.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 20% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 37% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Decatur High School
Decatur High School's state test result (20.1% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decatur High School this school | 1,352 | 64.8% | 20.1% |
| Franklin Pierce High School TACOMA | 977 | 64.4% | 36.8% |
| Auburn Senior High School AUBURN | 1,918 | 63.2% | 29.5% |
| Washington High School Tacoma | 989 | 69.1% | 32.5% |
| Mariner High School Everett | 2,106 | 62.5% | 40.5% |
| Mount Tahoma High School Tacoma | 1,410 | 69.6% | 24.9% |
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 Decatur High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In King County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 20.1% | #262 of 271 | #55 of 59 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 11.7% | #300 of 321 ▲ 6 | #55 of 59 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 36.5% | #288 of 327 ▲ 5 | #51 of 61 ▲ 3 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -3.4pp | #83 of 259 | #20 of 57 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,352 | #114 of 570 | #39 of 97 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 20.9:1 | #173 of 311 | #33 of 67 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 79.0% | #7 of 316 | #3 of 67 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 64.8% | #88 of 386 | #17 of 76 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -3.6% | #134 of 164 | #29 of 34 |
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
1,352
-33 (-2%) vs 2020
+13% since 1990-91, when it was 1,193
Student : Teacher
20.9:1
was 22.0:1
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 | 1,352 | 64.5 | 20.9:1 | 65% (876) |
| 2023-24 | 1,354 | 64.4 | 21.0:1 | 64% (867) |
| 2022-23 | 1,327 | 58.7 | 22.6:1 | 64% (845) |
| 2020-21 | 1,385 | 63 | 22.0:1 | 53% (734) |
| 2017-18 | 1,403 | 68.7 | 20.4:1 | 49% (685) |
| 2015-16 | 1,407 | 64 | 22.0:1 | 49% (692) |
| 2010-11 | 1,465 | 66 | 22.2:1 | 28% (416) |
| 2000-01 | 1,455 | 61 | 23.9:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 1,193 | 52 | 22.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Decatur High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 4% (1,403 to 1,352); teachers down 6% (68.7 to 64.5).
About Decatur High School
Decatur High School is a large high school in FEDERAL WAY, Washington. The school serves grades 9 through 12. Enrollment is 1,352 students. That is 136% bigger than the average of about 573 students for high schools in Washington.
Federal Way School District is made up of 43 schools with 22,250 students in all.
At Decatur High School, Hispanic students make up the biggest share, 33%. The remaining students are 22% White, 13% multiracial, 12% Black, and 11% Asian. Among people living in King County, the Hispanic share is about 11%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 79, compared with 70 nationally.
Classroom staffing at Decatur High School totals 64.5 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 20.9:1. It is about the same as the 21.6:1 average for high schools in Washington. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at Decatur High School is about 65%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in King County is 38%.
Decatur High School holds an F allk12 Grade, placing it above 1% of Washington public high schools.
A school in Washington with Decatur High School's free or reduced-price lunch share would be expected to score about 36.7%. Decatur High School scores 20.1%.
For King County, Census Bureau data show median household income comes to about $124,746, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 57%, and about 5% of people live in poverty. There are 544 public schools in the county, enrolling about 278,492, Decatur High School among them.
Olympic View Elementary School is about 0.5 miles away, making it the nearest public school. Within five miles of Decatur High School, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 35.0%; Decatur High School's is 20.1%, ranking 8th of 8.
Decatur High School has an NCES locale of Suburb: Large.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment held near 1,352, starting from 1,385. The ratio of students to teachers went from 22.0:1 to 20.9:1 over the same years.
The discussion board for Decatur High School is open to topics like special education services, counseling, and support programs. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
King County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,287,171
Census ACS
Median income
$124,746
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
544
278,492 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Federal Way School District
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolHigh · 1,810 students
- Federal Way High SchoolHigh · 1,665 students
- Todd Beamer High SchoolHigh · 1,412 students
- Evergreen Middle SchoolMiddle · 810 students
- Kilo Middle SchoolMiddle · 669 students
- Sacajawea Middle SchoolMiddle · 668 students
Other schools in FEDERAL WAY
- Federal Way High SchoolHigh · 1,665 students
- Todd Beamer High SchoolHigh · 1,412 students
- Sacajawea Middle SchoolMiddle · 668 students
- Illahee Middle SchoolMiddle · 655 students
- Lakota Middle SchoolMiddle · 645 students
- Wildwood Elementary SchoolElementary · 598 students
Other Decatur High schools
4 other US public schools in 5 states are named Decatur High. Decatur High School is the 2nd largest of the 5.
- Decatur High SchoolDecatur, GA · 1,901 students
- Decatur High SchoolDECATUR, TX · 1,163 students
- Decatur High SchoolDecatur, AL · 915 students
- DECATUR HIGH SCHOOLDECATUR, AR · 173 students
Nearby schools
- Olympic View Elementary School0.5 mi · 547
- Lakota Middle School0.7 mi · 645
- Silver Lake Elementary School0.9 mi · 382
- Twin Lakes Elementary School1.0 mi · 371
- Adelaide Elementary School1.0 mi · 321
- Employment Transition Program1.0 mi · 62
Frequently asked questions
About Decatur High SchoolHow large is Decatur High School?
Decatur High School enrolls approximately 1,352 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does Decatur High School serve?
Decatur High School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
How many students per teacher at Decatur High School?
Approximately 20.9:1 students per teacher at Decatur High School.
What is the student diversity at Decatur High School?
Student demographics at Decatur High School are roughly 22% White, 33% Hispanic, 12% Black, 11% Asian, 13% Two or more.
Who oversees Decatur High School?
Decatur High School is overseen by Federal Way School District in King County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.