Enrollment
321
Elementary
DISTRICT 409 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530048000124
Kapowsin Elementary
10412 264th Street East, Graham, WA 98338 · (253) 800-8600 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY41-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL321 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
20 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.8:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
48%
153 students
DISTRICT 59% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 34 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 40 | 12% |
| Grade 2 | 62 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 51 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 71 | 22% |
| Grade 5 | 63 | 20% |
This year's kindergarten class (34) is 46% smaller than its 5th grade class (63).
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 75% · 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
48.9%
WA avg 58.4% . +1.5pp since 2014
Math
42.1%
WA avg 51.2% . -6.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 42 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 1 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 | 48.9% | 42.1% |
| 2023-24 | 45.6% | 35.9% |
| 2022-23 | 46.5% | 37.6% |
| 2021-22 | 48.7% | 49.2% |
| 2018-19 | 61.3% | 61.0% |
| 2017-18 | 54.8% | 51.6% |
| 2016-17 | 50.9% | 48.5% |
| 2015-16 | 48.1% | 47.9% |
| 2014-15 | 47.4% | 48.7% |
% 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
43.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
48.2%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 48% 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 Kapowsin Elementary
Kapowsin Elementary's state test result (43.8% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kapowsin Elementary this school | 321 | 47.7% | 43.8% |
| Roosevelt Elementary School Bellingham | 348 | 49.4% | 37.2% |
| Friday Harbor Elementary School FRIDAY HARBOR | 329 | 43.5% | 51.1% |
| Mill Pond Elementary School Yelm | 374 | 49.2% | 53.2% |
| Lackamas Elementary Yelm | 290 | 52.4% | 39.1% |
| York Elementary School Vancouver | 338 | 43.8% | 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 Kapowsin Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 43.8% | #544 of 936 | #87 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.1% | #601 of 1,103 ▲ 122 | #85 of 142 ▲ 15 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 48.9% | #538 of 1,102 ▲ 47 | #78 of 142 ▲ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -3.4pp | #201 of 928 | #37 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 321 | #892 of 1,268 | #125 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.9:1 | #575 of 1,085 | #66 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.4% | #658 of 1,088 | #119 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 47.7% | #684 of 1,169 | #93 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.3% | #261 of 778 | #26 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
321
-18 (-5%) vs 2020
-15% since 1990-91, when it was 379
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
was 14.1:1
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 | 321 | 20.2 | 15.9:1 | 48% (153) |
| 2023-24 | 351 | 23.5 | 15.0:1 | 44% (156) |
| 2022-23 | 336 | 22.4 | 15.0:1 | 42% (140) |
| 2020-21 | 339 | 24 | 14.1:1 | 40% (134) |
| 2017-18 | 408 | 24.2 | 16.9:1 | 38% (153) |
| 2015-16 | 405 | 21 | 19.3:1 | 40% (162) |
| 2010-11 | 489 | 24 | 20.4:1 | 29% (143) |
| 2000-01 | 431 | 18 | 23.9:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 379 | 19 | 19.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Kapowsin Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 21% (408 to 321); teachers down 17% (24.2 to 20.2).
About Kapowsin Elementary
Kapowsin Elementary is classified as an elementary school. It is located in Graham, Washington. Its 321 students are spread across kindergarten through 5.
The district, Bethel School District, has 21,732 students enrolled across 39 schools.
White students account for 64% of enrollment at Kapowsin Elementary. Other students are 19% Hispanic and 13% multiracial. For comparison, Pierce County is about 64% White. By the diversity index, Kapowsin Elementary comes in at 54%.
Federal staffing data show 20.2 full-time-equivalent teachers at Kapowsin Elementary and a ratio of 15.9:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in Washington is 17.3:1, higher than at this school. The count of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch equals 48% of enrollment. That is close to the 50% average for public schools in Pierce County.
Kapowsin Elementary's average proficiency rate on state tests of 43.8% is 4.4 points below the 48.2% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
County data help place the school in context: in Pierce County, median household income is about $99,564, about 31% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 6%. Kapowsin Elementary is among the 287 public schools in Pierce County.
The nearest other public school, Rocky Ridge Elementary, is about 2.5 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. Kapowsin Elementary is 7th of 9 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is Rural: Fringe.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the student count dropped from 339 to 321. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio rose to 15.9:1, from 14.1:1.
Questions about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week can be posted here. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
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 Bethel School District
- Graham Kapowsin High SchoolHigh · 2,087 students
- Spanaway Lake High SchoolHigh · 1,787 students
- Bethel High SchoolHigh · 1,688 students
- Liberty Middle SchoolMiddle · 857 students
- Spanaway Middle SchoolMiddle · 766 students
- Cedarcrest Middle SchoolMiddle · 765 students
Other schools in Graham
- Graham Kapowsin High SchoolHigh · 2,087 students
- Frontier Middle SchoolMiddle · 620 students
- Cougar Mountain Middle SchoolMiddle · 605 students
- Centennial ElementaryElementary · 540 students
- Nelson Elementary SchoolElementary · 497 students
- North Star ElementaryElementary · 446 students
Nearby schools
- Rocky Ridge Elementary2.5 mi · 430
- Nelson Elementary School2.8 mi · 497
- Frontier Middle School2.8 mi · 620
- Graham Kapowsin High School2.9 mi · 2,087
- North Star Elementary3.2 mi · 446
- Centennial Elementary3.3 mi · 540
Frequently asked questions
About Kapowsin ElementaryHow large is Kapowsin Elementary?
Kapowsin Elementary enrolls approximately 321 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Kapowsin Elementary serve?
Kapowsin Elementary serves grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Kapowsin Elementary have?
Kapowsin Elementary employs 20 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.9:1.
How diverse is Kapowsin Elementary?
Kapowsin Elementary reports a student body of 64% White, 19% Hispanic, 1% Black, 2% Asian, 13% Two or more.
What district is Kapowsin Elementary in?
Kapowsin Elementary is part of Bethel School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.