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Best kept secret at Morris Ford Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
831
Middle
DISTRICT 818 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FRANKLIN PIERCE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530294000479
Morris Ford Middle School
1602 104th Street East, Tacoma, WA 98445 · (253) 298-3605 · Pierce County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL831 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 25% of Washington public middle schools
- CTest 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.
- CThree-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
18.1:1
46 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.0:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
65%
537 students
DISTRICT 70% · 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 | 320 | 39% |
| Grade 7 | 264 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 247 | 30% |
Student demographics
76%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
36.1%
WA avg 58.4% . -15.6pp since 2014
Math
21.8%
WA avg 51.2% . -20.3pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 36 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 22 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 16 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 20 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 36.1% | 21.8% |
| 2023-24 | 37.1% | 22.6% |
| 2022-23 | 36.5% | 21.3% |
| 2021-22 | 36.0% | 21.7% |
| 2018-19 | 51.5% | 31.1% |
| 2017-18 | 51.3% | 33.5% |
| 2016-17 | 53.8% | 39.4% |
| 2015-16 | 53.2% | 42.5% |
| 2014-15 | 51.7% | 42.2% |
% 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
30.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.9%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-6.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 30% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 37% 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 Morris Ford Middle School
Morris Ford Middle School's state test result (30.3% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morris Ford Middle School this school | 831 | 64.6% | 30.3% |
| Spanaway Middle School Tacoma | 766 | 67.8% | 41.5% |
| Perry G Keithley Middle School TACOMA | 804 | 68.8% | 17.5% |
| Cascade Middle School AUBURN | 966 | 65.2% | 27.9% |
| Thomas Middle School Lakewood | 934 | 63.6% | 30.9% |
| Explorer Middle School Everett | 777 | 64.9% | 32.3% |
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 Morris Ford Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 30.3% | #222 of 294 | #35 of 45 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 21.8% | #275 of 357 ▼ 10 | #35 of 45 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 36.1% | #274 of 357 ▼ 16 | #37 of 45 ▼ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +0.1pp | #198 of 290 | #34 of 45 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 831 | #54 of 377 | #8 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.1:1 | #100 of 340 | #7 of 44 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 76.2% | #30 of 340 | #12 of 44 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 64.6% | #87 of 359 | #10 of 45 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.2% | #104 of 192 | #12 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
831
-148 (-15%) vs 2020
+23% since 1990-91, when it was 673
Student : Teacher
18.1:1
was 18.5:1
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 | 831 | 46 | 18.1:1 | 65% (537) |
| 2023-24 | 820 | 51.2 | 16.0:1 | 68% (561) |
| 2022-23 | 882 | 53 | 16.6:1 | 64% (565) |
| 2020-21 | 979 | 53 | 18.5:1 | 66% (643) |
| 2017-18 | 925 | 49 | 18.9:1 | 69% (638) |
| 2015-16 | 925 | 48 | 19.3:1 | 80% (743) |
| 2010-11 | 920 | 44 | 20.9:1 | 54% (493) |
| 2000-01 | 939 | 47 | 20.0:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 673 | 35 | 19.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Morris Ford Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (925 to 831); teachers down 6% (49 to 46).
About Morris Ford Middle School
This page covers Morris Ford Middle School, a medium-sized middle school in Tacoma, Washington. The school reports 831 students in grades 6 through 8. The school's enrollment is 44% above the 577 average for middle schools in Washington.
Franklin Pierce School District serves 7,187 students across 14 schools.
Hispanic students are the largest group at Morris Ford Middle School, with 35% of enrollment. The rest of enrollment is 28% White, 14% multiracial, 10% Black, and 7% Asian. Among all residents of Pierce County, the Hispanic share is about 13%. By the diversity index, Morris Ford Middle School comes in at 76%.
Dividing enrollment by its 46 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 18.1:1. The average ratio among middle schools in Washington is 18.9:1, higher than at this school. Morris Ford Middle School reports 65% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Public schools in Pierce County average 50%.
The allk12 Grade for Morris Ford Middle School is C. Compared with Washington public middle schools, the school scored higher than 25% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Based on student poverty, the model expects 36.9% at Morris Ford Middle School; the school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 30.3%.
Pierce County has about 930,319 residents, and median household income is about $99,564, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. The public schools of Pierce County number 287 and enroll about 138,462.
The shortest distance from Morris Ford Middle School to another public school is about 0.3 miles, to Franklin Pierce High School. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Among the 8 closest schools with test data, this one included, Morris Ford Middle School ranks 7th on average proficiency.
By NCES locale, the school is Suburb: Large, or in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the student count dropped from 979 to 831.
Threads on this page can be about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. 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 Franklin Pierce School District
- Washington High SchoolHigh · 989 students
- Franklin Pierce High SchoolHigh · 977 students
- Perry G Keithley Middle SchoolMiddle · 804 students
- Brookdale ElementaryElementary · 483 students
- Collins ElementaryElementary · 466 students
- Harvard ElementaryElementary · 445 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
- Franklin Pierce High School0.3 mi · 977
- Midland Elementary0.5 mi · 399
- Harvard Elementary1.3 mi · 445
- Larchmont Elementary School1.5 mi · 303
- Collins Elementary1.5 mi · 466
- Hewins Early Learning Center1.5 mi · 266
Frequently asked questions
About Morris Ford Middle SchoolHow many students attend Morris Ford Middle School?
Morris Ford Middle School enrolls approximately 831 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Morris Ford Middle School serve?
Morris Ford Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many teachers does Morris Ford Middle School have?
Morris Ford Middle School employs 46 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 18.1:1.
What is the student diversity at Morris Ford Middle School?
Student demographics at Morris Ford Middle School are roughly 28% White, 35% Hispanic, 10% Black, 7% Asian, 14% Two or more.
What district is Morris Ford Middle School in?
Morris Ford Middle School is part of Franklin Pierce School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.