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Teachers: what resource would make the biggest difference at Harvard Elementary this year?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
445
Elementary
DISTRICT 387 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FRANKLIN PIERCE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530294000476
Harvard Elementary
1709 85th Street E, Tacoma, WA 98445 · (253) 298-4105 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL445 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.6:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.0:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
76%
337 students
DISTRICT 70% · 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 | 62 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 80 | 18% |
| Grade 2 | 81 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 77 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 73 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 72 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (62) is 14% smaller than its 5th grade class (72).
Student demographics
60%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 77% · 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
25.2%
WA avg 58.4% . -15.5pp since 2014
Math
25.2%
WA avg 51.2% . -6.5pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 25 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 25 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 7 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 25.2% | 25.2% |
| 2023-24 | 25.3% | 23.3% |
| 2022-23 | 31.8% | 29.6% |
| 2021-22 | 38.6% | 36.1% |
| 2018-19 | 49.0% | 42.9% |
| 2017-18 | 52.9% | 45.3% |
| 2016-17 | 52.5% | 45.9% |
| 2015-16 | 47.6% | 39.4% |
| 2014-15 | 40.7% | 31.8% |
% 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
27.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
29.4%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-2.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 27% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 29% 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 Harvard Elementary
Harvard Elementary's state test result (27.3% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard Elementary this school | 445 | 75.7% | 27.3% |
| College Place Elementary LYNNWOOD | 473 | 75.3% | 27.5% |
| Horizon Elementary Everett | 550 | 74.5% | 23.3% |
| Cedar Valley Elementary LYNNWOOD | 427 | 73.8% | 21.6% |
| Highlands Elementary School Renton | 386 | 70.2% | 25.6% |
| Gildo Rey Elementary School AUBURN | 416 | 72.6% | 36.3% |
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 Harvard Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 27.3% | #843 of 936 | #134 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 25.2% | #960 of 1,103 ▲ 26 | #129 of 142 ▲ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 25.2% | #1,017 of 1,102 ▼ 3 | #140 of 142 ▼ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -12.1pp | #19 of 928 | #4 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 445 | #464 of 1,268 | #66 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.6:1 | #488 of 1,085 | #50 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 59.8% | #524 of 1,088 | #108 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 75.7% | #167 of 1,169 | #13 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +2.3% | #220 of 257 | #38 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
445
+57 (+15%) vs 2020
+13% since 1990-91, when it was 395
Student : Teacher
15.6:1
was 13.9:1
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 | 445 | 28.5 | 15.6:1 | 76% (337) |
| 2023-24 | 421 | 33.4 | 12.6:1 | 78% (327) |
| 2022-23 | 408 | 30.1 | 13.6:1 | 75% (305) |
| 2020-21 | 388 | 28 | 13.9:1 | 69% (269) |
| 2017-18 | 435 | 24.7 | 17.6:1 | 82% (357) |
| 2015-16 | 392 | 24 | 16.3:1 | 87% (342) |
| 2010-11 | 407 | 24 | 17.0:1 | 76% (310) |
| 2000-01 | 479 | 24 | 20.0:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 395 | 18 | 21.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Harvard Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 2% (435 to 445); teachers up 15% (24.7 to 28.5).
About Harvard Elementary
Families in Tacoma, Washington, are served by Harvard Elementary, a medium-sized elementary school. The latest federal count shows 445 students in kindergarten through 5.
Franklin Pierce School District runs Harvard Elementary along with 13 other schools, enrolling 7,187 students in total.
Roughly 60% of students at Harvard Elementary are Hispanic. Other groups include 13% White, 10% Black, 9% multiracial, and 5% Asian. By comparison, Pierce County residents are about 13% Hispanic. Pick two students at random and there is a 60% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The school's student-to-teacher ratio is about 15.6:1, with 28.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. That is lower than the 17.3:1 average for elementary schools in Washington. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Harvard Elementary is 76%. Across public schools in Pierce County, the average is 50%.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Harvard Elementary would score about 29.4%. It scores 27.3%, 2.1 points below that figure.
Pierce County has these Census figures: the median household income is $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 is home to 287 public schools and about 138,462 public school students.
Larchmont Elementary School is located about 1.1 miles from Harvard Elementary. The five-mile area around Harvard Elementary holds at least 8 other public schools. Harvard Elementary comes in 9th of 9 nearby schools on average proficiency.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as Suburb: Large, meaning it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment at Harvard Elementary climbed 15% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 388 to 445 students. The ratio of students to teachers went from 13.9:1 to 15.6:1 over the same years.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss school safety, transportation, and start times at Harvard Elementary. 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 Franklin Pierce School District
- Washington High SchoolHigh · 989 students
- Franklin Pierce High SchoolHigh · 977 students
- Morris Ford Middle SchoolMiddle · 831 students
- Perry G Keithley Middle SchoolMiddle · 804 students
- Brookdale ElementaryElementary · 483 students
- Collins ElementaryElementary · 466 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 Harvard Elementary schools
5 other US public schools in 6 states are named Harvard Elementary. Harvard Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 6.
- Harvard Elementary SchoolHOUSTON, TX · 657 students
- Harvard Elementary SchoolChicago, IL · 335 students
- Harvard Elementary SchoolToledo, OH · 262 students
- Harvard ElementaryLos Angeles, CA · 249 students
- HARVARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHARVARD, NE · 91 students
Nearby schools
- Larchmont Elementary School1.1 mi · 303
- Boze Elementary School1.2 mi · 485
- Morris Ford Middle School1.3 mi · 831
- Midland Elementary1.4 mi · 399
- Waller Road Elementary1.5 mi · 306
- Franklin Pierce High School1.6 mi · 977
Frequently asked questions
About Harvard ElementaryHow many students attend Harvard Elementary?
Harvard Elementary enrolls approximately 445 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Harvard Elementary serve?
Harvard Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Harvard Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Harvard Elementary is approximately 15.6:1 (29 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Harvard Elementary?
At Harvard Elementary, the student body is approximately 13% White, 60% Hispanic, 10% Black, 5% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Harvard Elementary?
Harvard Elementary is overseen by Franklin Pierce School District in Pierce County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.