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What do students at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School actually talk about outside of class?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
723
Elementary
DISTRICT 645 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ORTING SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530645002813
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School
805 Old Pioneer Way NW, Orting, WA 98360 · (360) 893-0595 · Pierce County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL723 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 21% of Washington public elementary schools
- CTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B+Three-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
15.7:1
46 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.3:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
39%
281 students
DISTRICT 39% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 47 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 87 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 114 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 92 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 150 | 21% |
| Grade 4 | 89 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 144 | 20% |
This year's kindergarten class (87) is 40% smaller than its 5th grade class (144).
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 54% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on grade levels within Orting School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
44.9%
WA avg 58.4% . -5.5pp since 2014
Math
42.3%
WA avg 51.2% . -10.8pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 45 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 down about 6 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 11 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 44.9% | 42.3% |
| 2023-24 | 37.1% | 34.3% |
| 2022-23 | 44.3% | 40.0% |
| 2021-22 | 43.8% | 34.3% |
| 2018-19 | 52.9% | 43.8% |
| 2017-18 | 44.6% | 39.0% |
| 2016-17 | 47.1% | 43.6% |
| 2015-16 | 58.2% | 54.5% |
| 2014-15 | 50.4% | 53.1% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of WA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
41.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
54.1%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 41% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 54% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School's state test result (41.0% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School this school | 723 | 38.9% | 41.0% |
| Maple Lawn Elementary Sumner | 628 | 36.8% | 70.6% |
| Orting Elementary School Orting | 567 | 39.0% | 39.6% |
| East Olympia Elementary Olympia | 579 | 35.6% | 58.2% |
| Mt. Pilchuck Elementary School Lake Stevens | 554 | 37.2% | 60.7% |
| Kent Prairie Elementary Arlington | 621 | 43.0% | 53.4% |
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 Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 41.0% | #608 of 936 | #96 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.3% | #594 of 1,103 ▲ 169 | #82 of 142 ▲ 23 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 44.9% | #625 of 1,102 ▲ 175 | #89 of 142 ▲ 18 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.6pp | #281 of 928 | #47 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 723 | #24 of 1,268 | #6 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.7:1 | #516 of 1,085 | #55 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.4% | #660 of 1,088 | #120 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 38.9% | #816 of 1,169 | #111 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +7.7% | #141 of 257 | #25 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
723
+210 (+41%) vs 2020
+60% since 2000-01, when it was 452
Student : Teacher
15.7:1
was 16.0:1
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 | 723 | 46.1 | 15.7:1 | 39% (281) |
| 2023-24 | 719 | 41.3 | 17.4:1 | 33% (234) |
| 2022-23 | 665 | 38.3 | 17.4:1 | 35% (230) |
| 2020-21 | 513 | 32 | 16.0:1 | 32% (165) |
| 2017-18 | 671 | 31.4 | 21.4:1 | 36% (241) |
| 2015-16 | 685 | 33 | 20.8:1 | 40% (272) |
| 2010-11 | 505 | 26 | 19.4:1 | 37% (185) |
| 2000-01 | 452 | 23 | 19.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 8% (671 to 723); teachers up 47% (31.4 to 46.1).
About Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is a large elementary school in Washington, located in Orting. Students in pre-K through 5 attend the school, which enrolls 723 students. The average among elementary schools in Washington is roughly 380 students; this school is 90% above that.
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is one school in a 4-school district, Orting School District, which enrolls 2,809 students.
At Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School, White students make up 65% of the student body. It is also 17% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 4% Black, and 3% Asian. For comparison, Pierce County is about 64% White. Pick two students at random and there is a 54% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The teaching staff at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is 46.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the ratio is 15.7:1. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 17.3:1 average for elementary schools in Washington. About 39% of students, or 281, qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The rate at public schools in Pierce County averages 50%, higher than here.
Measured against Washington public elementary schools, Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School receives a C-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School would score about 54.1%. It scores 41.0%, a bottom-10% result among Washington schools on BeatsExpectations.
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is located in Pierce County, where the median household income is $99,564, about 31% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 6%. Besides Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School, Pierce County has 286 other public schools.
The closest other public school is Orting Middle School, about 0.1 miles away. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. On proficiency, Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is behind the 47.4% nearby average, ranking 7th of 9.
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.
Enrollment records show 513 in 2020-21 and 723 in 2024-25. Because schools sometimes add or drop grades, the two numbers may not be directly comparable.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
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 Orting School District
- Orting High SchoolHigh · 876 students
- Orting Middle SchoolMiddle · 643 students
- Orting Elementary SchoolElementary · 567 students
- Orting Special EducationElementary
- Orting Elementary Online AcademyCombined
- Orting Secondary Online AcademyCombined
Other schools in Orting
- Orting High SchoolHigh · 876 students
- Orting Middle SchoolMiddle · 643 students
- Orting Elementary SchoolElementary · 567 students
- Orting Special EducationElementary
- Orting Elementary Online AcademyCombined
- Orting Secondary Online AcademyCombined
Nearby schools
- Orting Middle School0.1 mi · 643
- Orting High School0.5 mi · 876
- Orting Elementary School0.6 mi · 567
- Tehaleh Heights Elementary School1.9 mi · 627
- G W Edgerton Elementary1.9 mi · 753
- Glacier View Junior High2.2 mi · 843
Frequently asked questions
About Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary SchoolHow large is Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School?
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School enrolls approximately 723 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School serve?
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School have?
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School employs 46 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.7:1.
What is the student diversity at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School?
Student demographics at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School are roughly 65% White, 17% Hispanic, 4% Black, 3% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Is Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School public or private?
Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Orting School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.