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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Gray Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
510
Middle
DISTRICT 474 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530870001471
Gray Middle School
6229 S Tyler St, Tacoma, WA 98409 · (253) 571-5200 · Pierce County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL510 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
18.4:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.0:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
74%
376 students
DISTRICT 57% · 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 | 161 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 184 | 36% |
| Grade 8 | 165 | 32% |
Student demographics
79%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
24.0%
WA avg 58.4% . -16.1pp since 2014
Math
14.9%
WA avg 51.2% . -15.0pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 24 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 15 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 16 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 15 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 24.0% | 14.9% |
| 2023-24 | 23.4% | 13.3% |
| 2022-23 | 30.2% | 16.2% |
| 2021-22 | 31.0% | 14.1% |
| 2018-19 | 33.2% | 24.6% |
| 2017-18 | 34.1% | 26.3% |
| 2016-17 | 35.2% | 25.7% |
| 2015-16 | 34.4% | 26.3% |
| 2014-15 | 40.1% | 29.9% |
% 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
19.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
30.7%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-11.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 19% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 31% 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 Gray Middle School
Gray Middle School's state test result (19.1% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gray Middle School this school | 510 | 73.7% | 19.1% |
| Lakota Middle School FEDERAL WAY | 645 | 71.2% | 31.7% |
| Angelo Giaudrone Middle School Tacoma | 449 | 71.9% | 21.1% |
| First Creek Middle School Tacoma | 584 | 78.1% | 20.2% |
| Chinook Middle School SeaTac | 620 | 72.9% | 22.9% |
| Hudtloff Middle School Lakewood | 555 | 76.0% | 18.2% |
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 Gray Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 19.1% | #277 of 294 | #42 of 45 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 14.9% | #329 of 357 ▼ 2 | #41 of 45 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 24.0% | #335 of 357 ▲ 3 | #42 of 45 ▲ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -3.1pp | #39 of 290 | #4 of 45 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 510 | #244 of 377 | #37 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.4:1 | #115 of 340 | #9 of 44 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 79.1% | #7 of 340 | #4 of 44 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 73.7% | #47 of 359 | #4 of 45 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -3.0% | #164 of 192 | #19 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
510
-39 (-7%) vs 2020
-25% since 1990-91, when it was 683
Student : Teacher
18.4:1
was 18.9:1
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 | 510 | 27.8 | 18.4:1 | 74% (376) |
| 2023-24 | 526 | 30.4 | 17.3:1 | 82% (433) |
| 2022-23 | 521 | 28.1 | 18.6:1 | 78% (406) |
| 2020-21 | 549 | 29 | 18.9:1 | 79% (434) |
| 2017-18 | 526 | 28.3 | 18.6:1 | 77% (404) |
| 2015-16 | 605 | 32 | 18.9:1 | 78% (474) |
| 2010-11 | 632 | 36 | 17.6:1 | 71% (447) |
| 2000-01 | 814 | 47 | 17.3:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 683 | 38 | 18.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Gray Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 3% (526 to 510); teachers down 2% (28.3 to 27.8).
About Gray Middle School
Gray Middle School is a mid-sized middle school in Tacoma, Washington. It is open to students in grades 6 through 8 and enrolls 510 students.
Gray Middle School is one of the 66 schools that make up Tacoma School District (28,900 students in total).
The biggest share of students at Gray Middle School, 33%, is Hispanic. Beyond that, enrollment is 18% Black, 17% White, 16% multiracial, and 9% Asian. In Pierce County overall, about 13% of residents are Hispanic. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Gray Middle School scores 79%.
There are 27.8 full-time-equivalent teachers at the school, a ratio of 18.4:1. That is in line with the 18.9:1 average for middle schools in Washington. On the income side, 74% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Compared with the 50% average for public schools in Pierce County, the school's rate is higher.
Gray Middle School scores 11.6 points below its predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results: 19.1% actual versus 30.7% predicted. That puts it in the bottom 10% of Washington schools on BeatsExpectations.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Pierce County show that median household income comes to about $99,564, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 31% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 6%. The county's public schools total 287, with about 138,462 students.
Of the public schools around it, Gray Middle School is closest to Manitou Park Elementary School, about 0.2 miles away. The five-mile area around Gray Middle School holds at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 25.0%; Gray Middle School's is 19.1%, ranking 7th of 8.
In the federal locale system, Gray Middle School is coded City: Mid-size, for schools inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
The school's student count decreased 7% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
This page is a place to ask questions and share updates about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures at Gray Middle School. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
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
Other Gray Middle schools
3 other US public schools in 4 states are named Gray Middle. Gray Middle School is the 3rd largest of the 4.
- Gray Middle SchoolUnion, KY · 1,006 students
- GRAY MIDDLE SCHOOLGROVELAND, FL · 985 students
- Gray Middle SchoolPortland, OR · 439 students
Nearby schools
- Manitou Park Elementary School0.2 mi · 429
- Mount Tahoma High School0.8 mi · 1,410
- Edison Elementary School0.9 mi · 413
- Arlington Elementary School1.0 mi · 390
- Madison Headstart1.6 mi · 23
- Lochburn Middle School1.7 mi · 497
Frequently asked questions
About Gray Middle SchoolHow large is Gray Middle School?
Gray Middle School enrolls approximately 510 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Gray Middle School serve?
Gray Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Gray Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Gray Middle School is approximately 18.4:1 (28 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Gray Middle School?
At Gray Middle School, the student body is approximately 17% White, 33% Hispanic, 18% Black, 9% Asian, 16% Two or more.
Is Gray Middle School public or private?
Gray Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Tacoma School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.