1
Alumni: what's one memory from Elk Ridge Elementary that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
564
Elementary
DISTRICT 349 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WHITE RIVER SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530978001661
Elk Ridge Elementary
340 White River Park Rd, Buckley, WA 98321 · (360) 829-3354 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL564 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 56% of Washington public elementary schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+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
16.6:1
34 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.1:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
31%
176 students
DISTRICT 38% · STATE 51%
Community
1
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 | 84 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 88 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 106 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 79 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 105 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 102 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (84) is 18% smaller than its 5th grade class (102).
Student demographics
44%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 43% · 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
Students here typically continue to
Elk Ridge Elementary→Glacier Middle School
Based on grade levels within White River School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
62.1%
WA avg 58.4% . -4.3pp since 2014
Math
58.5%
WA avg 51.2% . -1.3pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 62 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 58 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 4 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 1 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 62.1% | 58.5% |
| 2023-24 | 62.7% | 61.7% |
| 2022-23 | 62.2% | 61.8% |
| 2021-22 | 63.9% | 62.0% |
| 2018-19 | 72.4% | 65.0% |
| 2017-18 | 57.7% | 54.6% |
| 2016-17 | 59.0% | 61.7% |
| 2015-16 | 59.2% | 63.8% |
| 2014-15 | 66.4% | 59.7% |
% 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
60.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
59.3%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 60% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 59% 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 Elk Ridge Elementary
Elk Ridge Elementary's state test result (60.3% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 3 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elk Ridge Elementary this school | 564 | 31.2% | 60.3% |
| Griffin School Olympia | 585 | 31.5% | 59.3% |
| William Wiley Elementary School West Richland | 493 | 27.8% | N/A |
| Cathcart Elementary Snohomish | 497 | 28.4% | 62.4% |
| Ridge View Elementary School KENNEWICK | 471 | 28.2% | N/A |
| Hutton Elementary Spokane | 492 | 29.7% | 73.4% |
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 Elk Ridge Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 60.3% | #256 of 936 | #36 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.5% | #279 of 1,103 ▼ 42 | #34 of 142 ▼ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 62.1% | #258 of 1,102 ▲ 8 | #31 of 142 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -2.6pp | #251 of 928 | #43 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 564 | #149 of 1,268 | #25 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.6:1 | #718 of 1,085 | #85 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 43.6% | #871 of 1,088 | #133 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 31.2% | #918 of 1,169 | #127 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +32.4% | #23 of 257 | #3 of 43 |
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
564
+66 (+13%) vs 2020
+5% since 1990-91, when it was 536
Student : Teacher
16.6:1
was 17.8:1
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 | 564 | 34 | 16.6:1 | 31% (176) |
| 2023-24 | 570 | 35 | 16.3:1 | 31% (174) |
| 2022-23 | 595 | 33.2 | 17.9:1 | 30% (176) |
| 2020-21 | 498 | 28 | 17.8:1 | 26% (128) |
| 2017-18 | 426 | 23.9 | 17.8:1 | 30% (126) |
| 2015-16 | 361 | 20 | 18.1:1 | 33% (119) |
| 2010-11 | 361 | 17 | 21.2:1 | 35% (128) |
| 2000-01 | 517 | 25 | 20.7:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 536 | 25 | 21.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Elk Ridge Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 32% (426 to 564); teachers up 42% (23.9 to 34).
About Elk Ridge Elementary
Elk Ridge Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school in Buckley, Washington, administered by White River School District. It teaches 564 students in kindergarten through 5. By comparison, elementary schools in Washington enroll about 380 students on average.
In White River School District, 9 schools enroll a combined 4,475 students.
White students are 73% of those enrolled at Elk Ridge Elementary. The rest of enrollment is 16% Hispanic and 7% multiracial. Census estimates put the White share of Pierce County's population at about 64%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 44, compared with 70 nationally.
There are about 16.6 students for every full-time-equivalent teacher at Elk Ridge Elementary, which has 34. Elementary schools in Washington average 17.3:1, 0.7 more students per teacher than here. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at Elk Ridge Elementary is about 31%. On average, public schools in Pierce County report 50%.
Elk Ridge Elementary earns a B on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 56% of Washington public elementary schools.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Elk Ridge Elementary would score about 59.3%. It scores 60.3%, 1.0 points above that figure.
In Pierce County, median household income comes to about $99,564, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 31% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. Pierce County counts 287 public schools with about 138,462 students.
Glacier Middle School sits about 0.3 miles from Elk Ridge Elementary. Elk Ridge Elementary has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Elk Ridge Elementary comes in 2nd of 7 nearby schools on average proficiency.
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.
Enrollment rose 13% over 4 years, reaching 564 in 2024-25. The ratio was 17.8:1 in 2020-21 and 16.6:1 in 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. 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 White River School District
- White River High SchoolHigh · 1,340 students
- Glacier Middle SchoolMiddle · 999 students
- Foothills ElementaryElementary · 470 students
- Mountain Meadow ElementaryElementary · 443 students
- White River Early Learning CenterElementary · 360 students
- Wilkeson Elementary SchoolElementary · 253 students
Other schools in Buckley
- White River High SchoolHigh · 1,340 students
- Glacier Middle SchoolMiddle · 999 students
- Foothills ElementaryElementary · 470 students
- Mountain Meadow ElementaryElementary · 443 students
- White River Early Learning CenterElementary · 360 students
- White River Reengagement ProgramHigh · 40 students
Other Elk Ridge Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Elk Ridge Elementary. Elk Ridge Elementary is the largest of the 2.
- ELK RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBismarck, ND · 510 students
Nearby schools
- Glacier Middle School0.3 mi · 999
- White River Special Ed Services0.4 mi · 6
- Sunrise Elementary1.3 mi · 382
- Southwood Elementary School1.5 mi · 358
- Enumclaw Middle School1.5 mi · 522
- Special Ed School1.6 mi · 22
Frequently asked questions
About Elk Ridge ElementaryHow many students attend Elk Ridge Elementary?
Elk Ridge Elementary enrolls approximately 564 students in grades KG-05.
Is Elk Ridge Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Elk Ridge Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at Elk Ridge Elementary?
Approximately 16.6:1 students per teacher at Elk Ridge Elementary.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Elk Ridge Elementary?
At Elk Ridge Elementary, the student body is approximately 73% White, 16% Hispanic, 1% Black, 1% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Is Elk Ridge Elementary public or private?
Elk Ridge Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by White River School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.