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Test scores

Science and Math Institute · Tacoma, WA
See how it ranks: all Washington schools by score · Pierce County schools by score

Smarter Balanced + WCAS, SY 2024-25

All grades, all students. % Met or Exceeded Standard.
English Language Arts
67.6%
State avg 58.4%
District avg 48.8%
County avg 56.6%
+11.3pp since 2014-15
Mathematics
24.1%
State avg 51.2%
District avg 38.1%
County avg 46.7%
-19.2pp since 2014-15
Science
59.3%
State avg 52.2%
District avg 45.8%
County avg 49.2%

What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 68 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level, about 24 of 100 do math at grade level, and about 59 of 100 are at grade level in science. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58, 51, and 52. Reading and writing scores are up about 11 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 19 points.

BeatsExpectations

Demographically-adjusted score · methodology
Tier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
53.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
56.3%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-2.8pp
below demographic expectation

What this means: About 53% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 56% 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 →

By grade, SY 2024-25

School score vs state average per tested grade.
GradeEnglish Language ArtsMathematicsScience
SchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten tested
Grade 1067.6%65.8%9824.1%43.2%35N/AN/AN/A
Grade 11N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A59.3%45.4%96

9-year history

All grades, all students. Science and Math Institute   Washington avg

English Language Arts

49562014-1550202015-1649682016-1758752017-1858802018-1950802021-2249712022-2350712023-2458682024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2567.6%48.8%56.6%58.4%
SY 2023-2470.7%42.6%49.8%49.5%
SY 2022-2371.0%44.7%50.0%49.0%
SY 2021-2280.0%46.6%50.6%49.6%
SY 2018-1980.1%53.3%59.6%57.9%
SY 2017-1874.8%52.6%58.8%57.8%
SY 2016-1768.1%43.7%50.0%49.3%
SY 2015-1620.0%41.9%50.7%50.3%
SY 2014-1556.3%42.5%49.6%49.1%

Mathematics

44432014-1547442015-1646312016-1748512017-1848492018-1938482021-2239352022-2340342023-2451242024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2524.1%38.1%46.7%51.2%
SY 2023-2433.9%31.9%39.6%40.4%
SY 2022-2335.3%31.1%39.0%39.2%
SY 2021-2248.0%32.1%38.4%38.0%
SY 2018-1948.7%41.3%49.0%47.7%
SY 2017-1851.0%41.2%48.3%47.9%
SY 2016-1731.3%41.4%47.4%45.8%
SY 2015-1643.6%41.1%49.0%46.8%
SY 2014-1543.3%39.9%44.7%44.0%

Science

50672017-1849762018-1945622021-2245692022-2347652023-2452592024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2559.3%45.8%49.2%52.2%
SY 2023-2465.0%42.1%46.1%47.1%
SY 2022-2369.4%38.6%44.6%45.1%
SY 2021-2261.5%41.9%44.9%44.8%
SY 2018-1975.5%44.3%49.2%49.1%
SY 2017-1867.3%41.8%48.9%49.6%
SY 2016-17N/AN/AN/AN/A
SY 2015-16N/AN/AN/AN/A
SY 2014-15N/AN/AN/AN/A

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How to read these scores

What is Smarter Balanced + WCAS?
Washington public-school students in grades 3 through 8 plus grade 10 take the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) assessments in English Language Arts and Math each spring. The Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) is given at grades 5, 8, and 11.
What does "% Met or Exceeded Standard" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school whose scores were rated Level 3 or Level 4 on the test. Smarter Balanced reports four performance levels; Level 3 ("Met Standard") and Level 4 ("Exceeded Standard") signal the student is performing at grade level or above. A higher number is better.
What does 67.6% mean for English Language Arts at Science and Math Institute?
It means about 67.6 percent of students tested at Science and Math Institute performed at grade level or above on the Smarter Balanced + WCAS English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Washington that year was 58.4%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Washington, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), Report Card Assessment Data on data.wa.gov. Smarter Balanced (SBAC) ELA + Math (grades 3-8 + 10/11), Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) at grades 5, 8, 11. Headline metric is the cumulative Level 3 + Level 4 rate (Smarter Balanced "Met or Exceeded Standard").
How often is it updated?
Smarter Balanced + WCAS is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.

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