Enrollment
331
Elementary
DISTRICT 356 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·TACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530870001478
Lowell Elementary School
810 Mr. Dahl DR, Tacoma, WA 98403 · (253) 571-7200 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL331 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
19.0:1
17 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.2:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
30%
100 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 65 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 47 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 60 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 45 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 57 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (65) is 14% larger than its 5th grade class (57).
Student demographics
57%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
68.7%
WA avg 58.4% . -9.9pp since 2014
Math
62.6%
WA avg 51.2% . -14.1pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 63 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 10 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 14 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 68.7% | 62.6% |
| 2023-24 | 72.6% | 66.1% |
| 2022-23 | 79.0% | 67.3% |
| 2021-22 | 82.8% | 75.7% |
| 2018-19 | 83.5% | 82.6% |
| 2017-18 | 85.0% | 77.9% |
| 2016-17 | 77.5% | 76.1% |
| 2015-16 | 81.8% | 78.6% |
| 2014-15 | 78.6% | 76.6% |
% 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
69.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
59.9%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+9.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 69% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 60% 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 Lowell Elementary School
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowell Elementary School this school | 331 | 30.2% | 69.1% |
| Sunnyside Elementary Pullman | 326 | 30.1% | 70.8% |
| Vancouver Innovation Technology and Arts Elementary Vancouver | 300 | 31.7% | N/A |
| Lincoln Elementary School OLYMPIA | 300 | 33.3% | 47.8% |
| Lake Shore Elementary VANCOUVER | 300 | 31.3% | N/A |
| White River Early Learning Center Buckley | 360 | 33.6% | 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 Lowell Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 69.1% | #147 of 936 | #17 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 62.6% | #226 of 1,103 ▼ 56 | #26 of 142 ▼ 9 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 68.7% | #176 of 1,102 ▼ 50 | #23 of 142 ▼ 12 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -13.6pp | #14 of 928 | #2 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 331 | #864 of 1,268 | #121 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.0:1 | #1,037 of 1,085 | #135 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 57.2% | #587 of 1,088 | #112 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 30.2% | #931 of 1,169 | #129 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -23.4% | #222 of 778 | #21 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
331
-40 (-11%) vs 2020
-31% since 1990-91, when it was 483
Student : Teacher
19.0:1
was 17.7:1
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 | 331 | 17.4 | 19.0:1 | 30% (100) |
| 2023-24 | 333 | 20.3 | 16.4:1 | 30% (101) |
| 2022-23 | 319 | 19.1 | 16.7:1 | 25% (81) |
| 2020-21 | 371 | 21 | 17.7:1 | 19% (72) |
| 2017-18 | 432 | 22.1 | 19.5:1 | 17% (75) |
| 2015-16 | 439 | 22 | 19.9:1 | 19% (84) |
| 2010-11 | 436 | 22 | 19.8:1 | 17% (76) |
| 2000-01 | 446 | 24 | 18.6:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 483 | 23 | 21.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Lowell Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 23% (432 to 331); teachers down 21% (22.1 to 17.4).
About Lowell Elementary School
Lowell Elementary School is a medium-sized elementary school in Tacoma, Washington, under Tacoma School District. Students in kindergarten through 5 attend, and enrollment is 331 students.
Lowell Elementary School is part of Tacoma School District, where 66 schools serve 28,900 students.
At 61%, White students outnumber all other groups at Lowell Elementary School combined. Smaller groups are 18% multiracial, 14% Hispanic, and 4% Asian. The county population is about 64% White, within a few points of the school. The chance that two students picked at random at Lowell Elementary School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 57%.
Teachers at the school number 17.4 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 19.0:1. The 17.3:1 average for elementary schools in Washington is lower than this school's figure. Roughly 30% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. For comparison, public schools in Pierce County average 50%.
Lowell Elementary School sits between the top and bottom 10% of Washington schools on BeatsExpectations, with an actual average proficiency rate on state tests of 69.1% and a predicted 59.9%.
County data help place the school in context: in Pierce County, median household income is about $99,564, roughly 31% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. The public schools of Pierce County number 287 and enroll about 138,462.
Grant Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles away. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. In a group of 8 nearby schools with scores, Lowell Elementary School ranks 2nd on average proficiency.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Mid-size. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Lowell Elementary School had 371 students in 2020-21 and 331 in 2024-25, an 11% decrease. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 17.7:1 in 2020-21 to 19.0:1 in 2024-25.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for Lowell Elementary School covering things like enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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 Lowell Elementary schools
24 other US public schools in 15 states are named Lowell Elementary. Lowell Elementary School is the 14th largest of the 25.
- Lowell ElementaryEverett, WA · 531 students
- Lowell Elementary SchoolSEATTLE, WA · 392 students
- Lowell Elementary SchoolBellingham, WA · 338 students
- Lowell ElementaryLong Beach, CA · 609 students
- Lowell Elementary SchoolWaterloo, IA · 538 students
Nearby schools
- Grant Elementary School0.6 mi · 378
- Hilltop Heritage Middle School0.8 mi · 447
- Stadium High School0.8 mi · 1,700
- Bryant Montessori Middle School0.9 mi · 135
- Bryant Montessori School0.9 mi · 313
- Washington Elementary School1.0 mi · 383
Frequently asked questions
About Lowell Elementary SchoolHow large is Lowell Elementary School?
Lowell Elementary School enrolls approximately 331 students in grades KG-05.
Is Lowell Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Lowell Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Lowell Elementary School have?
Lowell Elementary School employs 17 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 19.0:1.
What is the student diversity at Lowell Elementary School?
Student demographics at Lowell Elementary School are roughly 61% White, 14% Hispanic, 2% Black, 4% Asian, 18% Two or more.
What district is Lowell Elementary School in?
Lowell Elementary School is part of Tacoma School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.