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Welcome to the Hilltop Heritage Middle School community. What's one thing that would make Hilltop Heritage Middle School even better?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
447
Middle
DISTRICT 474 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530870001473
Hilltop Heritage Middle School
602 N Sprague Ave, Tacoma, WA 98403 · (253) 571-7700 · Pierce County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL447 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 12% of Washington public middle schools
- C-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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
20.1:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.0:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
62%
279 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 | 154 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 140 | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 153 | 34% |
Student demographics
75%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
31.1%
WA avg 58.4% . -5.2pp since 2014
Math
18.8%
WA avg 51.2% . -10.5pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 31 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 19 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 5 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 11 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 31.1% | 18.8% |
| 2023-24 | 34.7% | 20.7% |
| 2022-23 | 39.5% | 22.9% |
| 2021-22 | 32.8% | 22.4% |
| 2018-19 | 40.6% | 29.8% |
| 2017-18 | 40.8% | 30.2% |
| 2016-17 | 41.9% | 29.7% |
| 2015-16 | 41.9% | 32.5% |
| 2014-15 | 36.3% | 29.3% |
% 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
28.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
38.3%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-10.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 28% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 38% 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 Hilltop Heritage Middle School
Hilltop Heritage Middle School's state test result (28.2% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hilltop Heritage Middle School this school | 447 | 62.4% | 28.2% |
| Wainwright Intermediate School Tacoma | 368 | 59.5% | 35.8% |
| Cedarcrest Middle School Spanaway | 765 | 62.6% | 28.2% |
| Bethel Middle School Spanaway | 661 | 63.5% | 36.8% |
| Angelo Giaudrone Middle School Tacoma | 449 | 71.9% | 21.1% |
| Thomas Middle School Lakewood | 934 | 63.6% | 30.9% |
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 Hilltop Heritage Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 28.2% | #236 of 294 | #38 of 45 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 18.8% | #300 of 357 ▼ 19 | #39 of 45 ▼ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 31.1% | #300 of 357 ▼ 27 | #39 of 45 ▼ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -2.7pp | #42 of 290 | #5 of 45 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 447 | #277 of 377 | #40 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 20.1:1 | #218 of 340 | #18 of 44 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 74.7% | #41 of 340 | #16 of 44 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 62.4% | #97 of 359 | #14 of 45 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -18.3% | #46 of 192 | #6 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
447
-157 (-26%) vs 2020
-30% since 1990-91, when it was 641
Student : Teacher
20.1:1
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 | 447 | 22.3 | 20.1:1 | 62% (279) |
| 2023-24 | 479 | 28.1 | 17.1:1 | 65% (309) |
| 2022-23 | 524 | 31 | 16.9:1 | 60% (315) |
| 2020-21 | 604 | 32 | 18.9:1 | 63% (380) |
| 2017-18 | 547 | 29.5 | 18.6:1 | 60% (330) |
| 2015-16 | 591 | 34 | 17.4:1 | 69% (407) |
| 2010-11 | 449 | 35 | 12.8:1 | 71% (318) |
| 2000-01 | 705 | 48 | 14.7:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 641 | 40 | 16.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Hilltop Heritage Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (547 to 447); teachers down 24% (29.5 to 22.3).
About Hilltop Heritage Middle School
Hilltop Heritage Middle School is a small middle school in Tacoma, Washington, one of the schools in Tacoma School District. Grades offered run from 6 through 8, with 447 students enrolled. The average among middle schools in Washington is roughly 577 students; this school is 23% smaller than that.
Tacoma School District is responsible for 66 schools, Hilltop Heritage Middle School included, with 28,900 students in all.
At Hilltop Heritage Middle School, the largest share of students is White, at 38%. Next come 21% Hispanic, 20% multiracial, 14% Black, and 3% Pacific Islander. The county population is about 64% White. The school's diversity index is 75%, meaning two students picked at random have a 75% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The school has about 20.1 students per teacher and 22.3 full-time-equivalent teachers. The school has more students per teacher than the 18.9:1 average for middle schools in Washington. About 62% of enrolled students meet the income rules for free or reduced-price lunch. The rate at public schools in Pierce County averages 50%, lower than here.
Hilltop Heritage Middle School is graded D by allk12, scoring above 12% of Washington public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Given its share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, Hilltop Heritage Middle School would be expected to post about 38.3%. Its actual average proficiency rate on state tests is 28.2%.
Hilltop Heritage Middle School is located in Pierce County, where the median household income is $99,564, about 31% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 6%. Besides Hilltop Heritage Middle School, Pierce County has 286 other public schools.
Of nearby public schools, Bryant Montessori School is the closest, at about 0.2 miles. Hilltop Heritage Middle School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. The nearest schools with test data average 45.9%, higher than Hilltop Heritage Middle School's 28.2%.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Mid-size.
Enrollment has fallen by 157 students since 2020-21, to 447. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio rose to 20.1:1, from 18.9:1.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss school safety, transportation, and start times at Hilltop Heritage Middle School. 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 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
- Bryant Montessori School0.2 mi · 313
- Bryant Montessori Middle School0.2 mi · 135
- Grant Elementary School0.3 mi · 378
- Lowell Elementary School0.8 mi · 331
- Stanley Elementary School0.8 mi · 325
- Bates Technical High School0.9 mi · 343
Frequently asked questions
About Hilltop Heritage Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Hilltop Heritage Middle School?
Hilltop Heritage Middle School enrolls approximately 447 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does Hilltop Heritage Middle School serve?
Hilltop Heritage Middle School serves grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Hilltop Heritage Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Hilltop Heritage Middle School is approximately 20.1:1 (22 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Hilltop Heritage Middle School?
Hilltop Heritage Middle School reports a student body of 38% White, 21% Hispanic, 14% Black, 3% Asian, 20% Two or more.
Who oversees Hilltop Heritage Middle School?
Hilltop Heritage Middle 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.