Enrollment
380
Elementary
DISTRICT 405 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PENINSULA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530669000981
Discovery Elementary School
4905 Rosedale St NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335 · (253) 530-1200 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL380 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 89% of Washington public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- C+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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
18.0:1
21 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.4:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
25%
96 students
DISTRICT 26% · 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 | 91 | 24% |
| Grade 1 | 40 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 64 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 56 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 72 | 19% |
This year's kindergarten class (91) is 26% larger than its 5th grade class (72).
Student demographics
40%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 41% · 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
70.9%
WA avg 58.4% . +5.8pp since 2014
Math
68.6%
WA avg 51.2% . +5.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 71 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 69 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 6 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 70.9% | 68.6% |
| 2023-24 | 72.5% | 71.9% |
| 2022-23 | 70.7% | 65.0% |
| 2021-22 | 73.8% | 67.6% |
| 2018-19 | 76.9% | 75.3% |
| 2017-18 | 74.0% | 70.6% |
| 2016-17 | 73.1% | 64.1% |
| 2015-16 | 69.9% | 62.5% |
| 2014-15 | 65.2% | 63.1% |
% 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
73.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
63.3%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+10.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 73% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 63% 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 Discovery Elementary School
Discovery Elementary School's state test result (73.3% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery Elementary School this school | 380 | 25.3% | 73.3% |
| Silver Beach Elementary School Bellingham | 357 | 23.8% | 68.9% |
| Maltby Elementary Snohomish | 334 | 25.7% | 60.8% |
| Midway Elementary COLBERT | 418 | 27.5% | 70.2% |
| Mountain Meadow Elementary Buckley | 443 | 27.1% | 80.9% |
| Conway School District 317 Mount Vernon | 421 | 29.9% | 51.1% |
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 Discovery Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 73.3% | #104 of 936 | #7 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 68.6% | #142 of 1,103 ▼ 31 | #14 of 142 ▼ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 70.9% | #143 of 1,102 ▼ 15 | #15 of 142 ▼ 3 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -0.9pp | #330 of 928 | #55 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 380 | #714 of 1,268 | #98 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.0:1 | #977 of 1,085 | #124 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 40.0% | #922 of 1,088 | #138 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 25.3% | #985 of 1,169 | #135 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -26.5% | #166 of 778 | #13 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
380
-154 (-29%) vs 2020
-24% since 1990-91, when it was 499
Student : Teacher
18.0:1
was 17.2:1
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 | 380 | 21.1 | 18.0:1 | 25% (96) |
| 2023-24 | 358 | 21.5 | 16.6:1 | 23% (83) |
| 2022-23 | 316 | 21.5 | 14.7:1 | 22% (69) |
| 2020-21 | 534 | 31 | 17.2:1 | 13% (68) |
| 2017-18 | 517 | 27.8 | 18.6:1 | 19% (100) |
| 2015-16 | 479 | 25 | 19.2:1 | 25% (118) |
| 2010-11 | 466 | 23 | 20.3:1 | 18% (84) |
| 2000-01 | 432 | 21 | 20.6:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 499 | 19 | 26.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Discovery Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 26% (517 to 380); teachers down 24% (27.8 to 21.1).
About Discovery Elementary School
Discovery Elementary School is the name of a medium-sized elementary school in Gig Harbor, Washington. The student body numbers 380 students, from kindergarten through 5.
Discovery Elementary School is part of a district of 17 schools: Peninsula School District, with 9,015 students.
Discovery Elementary School is 76% White by enrollment. Other reported shares: 11% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 2% Asian. That compares with about 64% White among all Pierce County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 40% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
A ratio of 18.0:1 comes from the school's 21.1 full-time-equivalent teachers. The school has more students per teacher than the 17.3:1 average for elementary schools in Washington. The lunch program counts 25% of students at Discovery Elementary School as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Compared with the 50% average for public schools in Pierce County, the school's rate is lower.
Discovery Elementary School is graded A by allk12, scoring above 89% of Washington public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Discovery Elementary School would score about 63.3%. It scores 73.3%, 10.1 points above that figure.
According to the American Community Survey, in Pierce County, 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.
Nearest public school: Gig Harbor High, less than a tenth of a mile away. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Discovery Elementary School is 2nd of 8 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Its NCES locale code is Suburb: Large: the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school enrolled 380 students in 2024-25, 154 fewer than the 534 it had in 2020-21.
Threads on this page can be about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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 Peninsula School District
- Gig Harbor HighHigh · 1,375 students
- Peninsula High SchoolHigh · 1,345 students
- Harbor Ridge Middle SchoolMiddle · 627 students
- Goodman Middle SchoolMiddle · 519 students
- Swift Water ElementaryElementary · 519 students
- Kopachuck Middle SchoolMiddle · 516 students
Other schools in Gig Harbor
- Gig Harbor HighHigh · 1,375 students
- Peninsula High SchoolHigh · 1,345 students
- Harbor Ridge Middle SchoolMiddle · 627 students
- Goodman Middle SchoolMiddle · 519 students
- Swift Water ElementaryElementary · 519 students
- Kopachuck Middle SchoolMiddle · 516 students
Other Discovery Elementary schools
16 other US public schools in 10 states are named Discovery Elementary. Discovery Elementary School is the 16th largest of the 17.
- Discovery ElementaryEverett, WA · 648 students
- Discovery ElementaryISSAQUAH, WA · 508 students
- Discovery Elementary - 26Sioux Falls, SD · 873 students
- DISCOVERY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSUNRISE, FL · 789 students
- Discovery ElementarySan Marcos, CA · 717 students
Nearby schools
- Gig Harbor High0.1 mi · 1,375
- Henderson Bay Alt High School0.1 mi · 139
- Pioneer Elementary School0.3 mi · 481
- Harbor Ridge Middle School0.8 mi · 627
- Swift Water Elementary1.7 mi · 519
- Artondale Elementary School2.7 mi · 413
Frequently asked questions
About Discovery Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Discovery Elementary School?
Discovery Elementary School enrolls approximately 380 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Discovery Elementary School serve?
Discovery Elementary School serves grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at Discovery Elementary School?
Approximately 18.0:1 students per teacher at Discovery Elementary School.
How diverse is Discovery Elementary School?
Discovery Elementary School reports a student body of 76% White, 11% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Discovery Elementary School?
Discovery Elementary School is overseen by Peninsula School District in Pierce County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.