Enrollment
358
Elementary
DISTRICT 356 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530870001474
Jefferson Elementary School
4302 North 13th St, Tacoma, WA 98406 · (253) 571-4000 · Pierce County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL358 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 91% of Washington public elementary schools
- A-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- BThree-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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
18.6:1
19 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.2:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
38%
136 students
DISTRICT 57% · STATE 51%
Community
0
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 37 | 10% |
| Kindergarten | 61 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 41 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 47 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 56 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 51 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 65 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (61) is 6% smaller than its 5th grade class (65).
Student demographics
66%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
71.2%
WA avg 58.4% . +17.2pp since 2014
Math
58.2%
WA avg 51.2% . +6.0pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 71 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 58 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 17 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 71.2% | 58.2% |
| 2023-24 | 72.2% | 60.1% |
| 2022-23 | 73.1% | 67.5% |
| 2021-22 | 66.7% | 57.7% |
| 2018-19 | 75.7% | 67.7% |
| 2017-18 | 64.7% | 59.0% |
| 2016-17 | 55.4% | 51.5% |
| 2015-16 | 57.3% | 54.5% |
| 2014-15 | 54.0% | 52.1% |
% 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
68.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
54.7%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+13.5pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 68% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 55% 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 13 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 Jefferson Elementary School
Jefferson Elementary School's state test result (68.2% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Elementary School this school | 358 | 38.0% | 68.2% |
| Green Lake Elementary School SEATTLE | 367 | 36.2% | 54.5% |
| Cougar Valley Elementary SILVERDALE | 397 | 37.8% | 48.4% |
| Tumwater Hill Elementary Tumwater | 400 | 37.5% | 49.9% |
| Cherrydale Elementary Steilacoom | 348 | 44.3% | 60.7% |
| Emerald Elementary School Vancouver | 440 | 38.0% | N/A |
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 Jefferson Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 68.2% | #160 of 936 | #19 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.2% | #288 of 1,103 ▼ 31 | #35 of 142 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 71.2% | #139 of 1,102 ▼ 4 | #12 of 142 ▲ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +2.5pp | #409 of 928 | #57 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 358 | #780 of 1,268 | #109 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.6:1 | #1,004 of 1,085 | #129 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 65.7% | #392 of 1,088 | #96 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 38.0% | #826 of 1,169 | #115 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +12.6% | #103 of 257 | #14 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
358
+42 (+13%) vs 2020
0% since 1990-91, when it was 357
Student : Teacher
18.6:1
was 15.1:1
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 | 358 | 19.3 | 18.6:1 | 38% (136) |
| 2023-24 | 323 | 19.5 | 16.5:1 | 41% (132) |
| 2022-23 | 303 | 20 | 15.1:1 | 39% (117) |
| 2020-21 | 316 | 21 | 15.1:1 | 39% (122) |
| 2017-18 | 318 | 19.1 | 16.6:1 | 48% (154) |
| 2015-16 | 300 | 19 | 15.8:1 | 57% (172) |
| 2010-11 | 284 | 16 | 17.8:1 | 57% (163) |
| 2000-01 | 317 | 16 | 19.8:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 357 | 21 | 17.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Jefferson Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 13% (318 to 358); teachers up 1% (19.1 to 19.3).
About Jefferson Elementary School
Jefferson Elementary School is an elementary school with a street address in Tacoma, Washington. The school has 358 students in 2024-25 across pre-K through 5.
Federal data list 66 schools in Tacoma School District, with 28,900 students enrolled.
More than half of the students at Jefferson Elementary School are White (52%). The next largest groups are 20% multiracial, 14% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 5% Asian. In Pierce County overall, about 64% of residents are White. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Jefferson Elementary School scores 66%.
On staff are 19.3 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 18.6:1. Elementary schools in Washington have an average ratio of 17.3:1. About 38% of students at Jefferson Elementary School are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That rate is below the 50% average among public schools in Pierce County.
Jefferson Elementary School earns an A on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 91% of Washington public elementary schools.
Jefferson Elementary School is a top-10% school in Washington on BeatsExpectations, beating its predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results of 54.7% with an actual 68.2%.
The county, Pierce County, is where the school is located. The median household earns about $99,564 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and about 6% of people live in poverty. Counting Jefferson Elementary School, Pierce County has 287 public schools.
Among nearby public schools, Dr. Dolores Silas High School is closest at about 0.5 miles. Jefferson Elementary School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. Nearby schools with test data average 50.0% proficiency; Jefferson Elementary School posts 68.2%.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Mid-size.
The school grew from 316 students in 2020-21 to 358 in 2024-25. Federal data show the ratio rising from 15.1:1 to 18.6:1.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. You can also rate the school on this page.
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 Jefferson Elementary schools
143 other US public schools in 31 states are named Jefferson Elementary. Jefferson Elementary School is the 75th largest of the 144.
- Jefferson ElementaryEverett, WA · 503 students
- Jefferson ElementaryMount Vernon, WA · 445 students
- Jefferson ElementaryRichland, WA · 418 students
- Jefferson ElementarySpokane, WA · 359 students
- Jefferson ElementaryPullman, WA · 335 students
Nearby schools
- Dr. Dolores Silas High School0.5 mi · 1,160
- Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center0.8 mi · 21
- Washington Elementary School0.8 mi · 383
- Downing Elementary School0.8 mi · 298
- Mason Middle School0.9 mi · 639
- Delong Elementary School0.9 mi · 349
Frequently asked questions
About Jefferson Elementary SchoolHow large is Jefferson Elementary School?
Jefferson Elementary School enrolls approximately 358 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Jefferson Elementary School serve?
Jefferson Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Jefferson Elementary School?
Approximately 18.6:1 students per teacher at Jefferson Elementary School.
How diverse is Jefferson Elementary School?
Jefferson Elementary School reports a student body of 52% White, 14% Hispanic, 7% Black, 5% Asian, 20% Two or more.
What district is Jefferson Elementary School in?
Jefferson Elementary School is part of Tacoma School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.