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What do you wish you knew before starting at Foss High School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
599
High
DISTRICT 656 · STATE 573
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530870001466
Foss High School
2112 S Tyler St, Tacoma, WA 98405 · (253) 571-7300 · Pierce County
GRADES 09–12HIGH12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL599 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
19.2:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 24.5:1 · STATE 21.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
69%
416 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 9 | 149 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 158 | 26% |
| Grade 11 | 135 | 23% |
| Grade 12 | 157 | 26% |
Student demographics
80%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 78% · 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
29.5%
WA avg 58.4% . +26.1pp since 2014
Math
6.5%
WA avg 51.2%
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 30 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 6 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 26 points since 2014.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 29.5% | 6.5% |
| 2023-24 | 35.0% | 7.3% |
| 2022-23 | 36.0% | 10.1% |
| 2021-22 | 34.2% | 7.6% |
| 2018-19 | 45.5% | 21.5% |
| 2017-18 | 42.7% | 19.3% |
| 2016-17 | 9.4% | 9.4% |
| 2014-15 | 3.4% | N/A |
% 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
19.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.6%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 19% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 34% 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 Foss High School
Foss High School's state test result (19.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foss High School this school | 599 | 69.4% | 19.5% |
| Technology Access Foundation Academy at Saghalie Federal Way | 532 | 74.1% | 21.8% |
| Lincoln High School Tacoma | 1,556 | 72.7% | 22.3% |
| Todd Beamer High School FEDERAL WAY | 1,412 | 72.8% | 25.9% |
| Washington High School Tacoma | 989 | 69.1% | 32.5% |
| Tyee High School SeaTac | 644 | 75.8% | 10.7% |
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 Foss High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 19.5% | #263 of 271 | #32 of 32 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.5% | #321 of 321 ▼ 3 | #32 of 32 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 29.5% | #309 of 327 ▼ 6 | #32 of 33 ▼ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -2.9pp | #89 of 259 | #10 of 32 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 599 | #200 of 570 | #28 of 51 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.2:1 | #99 of 311 | #8 of 34 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 80.0% | #4 of 316 | #3 of 35 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 69.4% | #62 of 386 | #7 of 39 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -24.3% | #14 of 164 | #1 of 15 |
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
599
-6 (-1%) vs 2020
-56% since 1990-91, when it was 1,370
Student : Teacher
19.2:1
was 15.9:1
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 | 599 | 31.2 | 19.2:1 | 69% (416) |
| 2023-24 | 580 | 37 | 15.7:1 | 78% (450) |
| 2022-23 | 587 | 37 | 15.9:1 | 71% (415) |
| 2020-21 | 605 | 38 | 15.9:1 | 74% (449) |
| 2017-18 | 791 | 44.3 | 17.8:1 | 67% (530) |
| 2015-16 | 911 | 43 | 21.2:1 | 71% (647) |
| 2010-11 | 1,056 | 59 | 17.9:1 | 57% (597) |
| 2000-01 | 1,905 | 86 | 22.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 1,370 | 65 | 21.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Foss High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 24% (791 to 599); teachers down 30% (44.3 to 31.2).
About Foss High School
Foss High School is listed by the National Center for Education Statistics as a high school in Tacoma, Washington. Its enrollment is 599 students, spread over grades 9 through 12.
Foss High School is a school in Tacoma School District. The district has 66 schools and 28,900 students.
Hispanic students account for 25% of enrollment at Foss High School, more than any other group. Other groups make up 24% White, 21% Black, 16% multiracial, and 8% Asian. County-wide, 13% of Pierce County residents are Hispanic. The diversity index for Foss High School is 80%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Foss High School lists 31.2 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 19.2 students per teacher. The gap from the 21.6:1 average for high schools in Washington is 2.4 students per teacher. About 69% of students at Foss High School are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The average for public schools in Pierce County is 50%.
Foss High School is in the bottom 10% of Washington schools on the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure. Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 33.6%. The school's actual rate is 19.5%, 14.2 points lower.
For the population of Pierce County, median household income comes to about $99,564, 31% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Pierce County counts 287 public schools with about 138,462 students.
Delong Elementary School, about 0.7 miles away, is the closest public school. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Foss High School is 5th of 5 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Foss High School is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000, a location NCES labels City: Mid-size.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, enrollment moved from 605 to 599, a small change. Staffing shifted too: the ratio moved from 15.9:1 to 19.2:1.
This community page is for conversations about open houses, carpools, and field trips. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
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 Tacoma School District
- 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
- Baker Middle SchoolMiddle · 687 students
- Tacoma School of the ArtsHigh · 658 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
- Delong Elementary School0.7 mi · 349
- Oakland High School0.8 mi · 112
- Franklin Elementary School0.9 mi · 260
- Wainwright Intermediate School1.1 mi · 368
- Whittier Elementary School1.2 mi · 305
- The School at Pearl Youth Residence1.3 mi · 21
Frequently asked questions
About Foss High SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Foss High School?
Foss High School enrolls approximately 599 students in grades 09-12.
Is Foss High School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Foss High School is a high school covering grades 09-12.
How many teachers does Foss High School have?
Foss High School employs 31 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 19.2:1.
How diverse is Foss High School?
Foss High School reports a student body of 24% White, 25% Hispanic, 21% Black, 8% Asian, 16% Two or more.
Who oversees Foss High School?
Foss High School is overseen by Tacoma School District in Pierce County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.