1
What's the one class at James Sales Elementary every student should take?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
387
Elementary
DISTRICT 387 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FRANKLIN PIERCE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530294000477
James Sales Elementary
1301 113th Street S, Tacoma, WA 98444 · (253) 298-4205 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL387 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
24 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.0:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
75%
291 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 | 58 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 60 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 74 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 74 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 65 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 56 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (58) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (56).
Student demographics
77%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
47.9%
WA avg 58.4% . +0.1pp since 2014
Math
46.7%
WA avg 51.2% . +2.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 48 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 47 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2014, while math scores are up about 3 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 47.9% | 46.7% |
| 2023-24 | 54.1% | 56.0% |
| 2022-23 | 49.0% | 45.5% |
| 2021-22 | 39.9% | 39.4% |
| 2018-19 | 58.8% | 54.2% |
| 2017-18 | 54.6% | 47.0% |
| 2016-17 | 50.8% | 46.3% |
| 2015-16 | 53.0% | 44.8% |
| 2014-15 | 47.9% | 44.0% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of WA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
51.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
29.8%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+22.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 30% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 22 points, placing it in Washington's top 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 James Sales Elementary
James Sales Elementary's state test result (51.7% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Sales Elementary this school | 387 | 75.2% | 51.7% |
| Custer Elementary School Lakewood | 358 | 74.0% | 41.0% |
| Christensen Elementary Tacoma | 346 | 74.3% | 32.8% |
| Midland Elementary Tacoma | 399 | 69.4% | 38.9% |
| Lake Louise Elementary School Lakewood | 450 | 69.6% | 40.4% |
| Whitman Elementary School Tacoma | 365 | 71.2% | 31.5% |
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 James Sales Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 51.7% | #398 of 936 | #65 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 46.7% | #497 of 1,103 ▼ 173 | #72 of 142 ▼ 27 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 47.9% | #561 of 1,102 ▼ 141 | #84 of 142 ▼ 21 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +7.7pp | #142 of 928 | #25 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 387 | #680 of 1,268 | #93 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.1:1 | #628 of 1,085 | #74 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 77.5% | #83 of 1,088 | #34 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 75.2% | #177 of 1,169 | #14 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.8% | #440 of 778 | #54 of 91 |
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
387
+6 (+2%) vs 2020
-8% since 1990-91, when it was 421
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
was 14.7:1
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 | 387 | 24 | 16.1:1 | 75% (291) |
| 2023-24 | 377 | 25.4 | 14.9:1 | 72% (270) |
| 2022-23 | 401 | 25.9 | 15.5:1 | 71% (283) |
| 2020-21 | 381 | 26 | 14.7:1 | 75% (286) |
| 2017-18 | 454 | 28 | 16.2:1 | 70% (319) |
| 2015-16 | 460 | 27 | 17.0:1 | 78% (357) |
| 2010-11 | 389 | 23 | 16.9:1 | 97% (377) |
| 2000-01 | 487 | 26 | 18.7:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 421 | 20 | 21.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for James Sales Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (454 to 387); teachers down 14% (28 to 24).
About James Sales Elementary
In Tacoma, Washington, part of Pierce County, James Sales Elementary is an elementary school. It enrolls 387 students in 2024-25. The grades offered are kindergarten through 5.
A total of 14 schools make up Franklin Pierce School District, with 7,187 students enrolled.
Hispanic students make up 33% of enrollment at James Sales Elementary, the largest share of any group. Next come 26% White, 14% multiracial, 13% Black, and 9% Pacific Islander. That compares with about 13% Hispanic among all Pierce County residents. A diversity index of 77% means there is a 77% chance two randomly chosen students at James Sales Elementary are from different groups.
With 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 16.1:1. The average for elementary schools in Washington is 17.3:1, so this school has fewer students per teacher. Student poverty is often measured by lunch eligibility; at James Sales Elementary, 75% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. It compares with 50% for public schools in Pierce County.
A school in Washington with James Sales Elementary's free or reduced-price lunch share would be expected to score about 29.8%. James Sales Elementary scores 51.7%.
In Pierce County, the median household earns about $99,564 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Across Pierce County, 287 public schools serve about 138,462 students.
A public school about 0.6 miles away, Christensen Elementary, is the closest to James Sales Elementary. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. James Sales Elementary ranks 1st of 8 among nearby schools on average proficiency, with 51.7% against a local average of 32.2%.
Locale: Suburb: Large. In NCES terms, the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over 4 years, enrollment stayed close to where it was, going from 381 to 387. Students per teacher increased from 14.7 in 2020-21 to 16.1 in 2024-25.
This page is set up for the James Sales Elementary community to discuss open houses, carpools, and field trips. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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
Nearby schools
- Christensen Elementary0.6 mi · 346
- Perry G Keithley Middle School0.7 mi · 804
- Washington High School0.8 mi · 989
- Hewins Early Learning Center1.1 mi · 266
- Brookdale Elementary1.2 mi · 483
- Helen Stafford Elementary School1.4 mi · 453
Frequently asked questions
About James Sales ElementaryHow large is James Sales Elementary?
James Sales Elementary enrolls approximately 387 students in grades KG-05.
Is James Sales Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
James Sales Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at James Sales Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at James Sales Elementary is approximately 16.1:1 (24 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at James Sales Elementary?
At James Sales Elementary, the student body is approximately 26% White, 33% Hispanic, 13% Black, 3% Asian, 14% Two or more.
Who oversees James Sales Elementary?
James Sales 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.