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Teachers: what resource would make the biggest difference at Sunset Elementary this year?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
634
Elementary
DISTRICT 518 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHENEY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530123000227
Sunset Elementary
12824 W 12th St., AIRWAY HEIGHTS, WA 99001 · (509) 559-4600 · Spokane County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL634 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
43 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.6:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
78%
493 students
DISTRICT 61% · 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 | 53 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 98 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 93 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 91 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 97 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 113 | 18% |
| Grade 5 | 89 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (98) is 10% larger than its 5th grade class (89).
Student demographics
70%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 52% · 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
19.7%
WA avg 58.4% . -22.2pp since 2014
Math
15.0%
WA avg 51.2% . -26.9pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 20 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 15 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 22 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 27 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 19.7% | 15.0% |
| 2023-24 | 19.1% | 19.1% |
| 2022-23 | 21.6% | 21.3% |
| 2021-22 | 23.1% | 20.3% |
| 2018-19 | 34.2% | 33.0% |
| 2017-18 | 34.9% | 31.4% |
| 2016-17 | 33.5% | 29.9% |
| 2015-16 | 37.5% | 31.7% |
| 2014-15 | 41.9% | 41.9% |
% 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
20.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
28.0%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 21% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 28% 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 Sunset Elementary
Sunset Elementary's state test result (20.8% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunset Elementary this school | 634 | 77.8% | 20.8% |
| Trent School SPOKANE VALLEY | 511 | 84.9% | 30.2% |
| Opportunity Elementary Spokane Valley | 631 | 74.0% | 39.7% |
| Linwood Elementary Spokane | 503 | 72.4% | 33.5% |
| Peter S Ogden Elementary VANCOUVER | 585 | 71.3% | N/A |
| Centennial Elementary Graham | 540 | 67.0% | 48.4% |
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 Sunset Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Spokane County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 20.8% | #906 of 936 | #81 of 82 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 15.0% | #1,079 of 1,103 ▼ 43 | #82 of 83 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 19.7% | #1,065 of 1,102 no change | #82 of 83 ▼ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -4.3pp | #171 of 928 | #14 of 81 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 634 | #70 of 1,268 | #3 of 92 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.6:1 | #250 of 1,085 | #39 of 83 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.1% | #289 of 1,088 | #1 of 83 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 77.8% | #144 of 1,169 | #16 of 86 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +37.8% | #16 of 257 | #2 of 14 |
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
634
+101 (+19%) vs 2020
+85% since 1990-91, when it was 342
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
was 14.4:1
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 | 634 | 43.5 | 14.6:1 | 78% (493) |
| 2023-24 | 657 | 42.4 | 15.5:1 | 77% (508) |
| 2022-23 | 588 | 41.5 | 14.2:1 | 74% (437) |
| 2020-21 | 533 | 37 | 14.4:1 | 67% (356) |
| 2017-18 | 460 | 32.3 | 14.2:1 | 67% (307) |
| 2015-16 | 399 | 26 | 15.3:1 | 69% (275) |
| 2010-11 | 418 | 31 | 13.5:1 | 69% (290) |
| 2000-01 | 325 | 19 | 17.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 342 | 16 | 21.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sunset Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 38% (460 to 634); teachers up 35% (32.3 to 43.5).
About Sunset Elementary
Sunset Elementary is listed by the National Center for Education Statistics as an elementary school in AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Washington. It is open to students in pre-K through 5 and enrolls 634 students. Elementary schools in Washington have about 380 students on average; enrollment here is 67% higher.
Sunset Elementary is a school in Cheney School District. The district has 12 schools and 5,662 students.
The largest racial or ethnic group at Sunset Elementary is White, with 48% of students. The next largest groups are 19% Hispanic, 15% Pacific Islander, 10% multiracial, and 3% Asian. The school's White share is 35 points below the 83% share among Spokane County residents. The diversity index for Sunset Elementary is 70%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Sunset Elementary has 43.5 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 14.6:1. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Washington is 17.3:1. A common income measure, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, is 78% at Sunset Elementary. The gap from the 52% average for public schools in Spokane County is 26 points.
Sunset Elementary sits between the top and bottom 10% of Washington schools on BeatsExpectations, with an actual average proficiency rate across its state test results of 20.8% and a predicted 28.0%.
In Spokane County, where the school is located, the median household earns about $78,582 a year, roughly 33% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting Sunset Elementary, Spokane County has 187 public schools.
Michael Anderson Elementary School is about 3.4 miles from Sunset Elementary, the shortest distance to any other public school. Counting only straight-line distance, 3 other public schools are within five miles. Among the 9 closest schools with test data, this one included, Sunset Elementary ranks 9th on average proficiency.
The school's federal locale classification is Suburb: Large.
The 2020-21-to-2024-25 change in enrollment was a 19% rise, from 533 to 634.
Anyone can start a thread about open houses, carpools, and field trips at Sunset Elementary. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Spokane County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
549,056
Census ACS
Median income
$78,582
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
33%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
187
76,588 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Cheney School District
- Cheney High SchoolHigh · 1,491 students
- Cheney Middle SchoolMiddle · 637 students
- Westwood Middle SchoolMiddle · 624 students
- Windsor ElementaryElementary · 549 students
- Betz ElementaryElementary · 535 students
- Phil Snowdon ElementaryElementary · 525 students
Other Sunset Elementary schools
23 other US public schools in 13 states are named Sunset Elementary. Sunset Elementary is the 3rd largest of the 24.
- Sunset ElementaryBELLEVUE, WA · 499 students
- Sunset Elementary SchoolVancouver, WA · 415 students
- SUNSET ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMIAMI, FL · 1,192 students
- Sunset ElementaryLivermore, CA · 759 students
- Sunset Elementary SchoolBrentwood, TN · 616 students
Nearby schools
- Michael Anderson Elementary School3.4 mi · 459
- Phil Snowdon Elementary4.3 mi · 525
- Great Northern Elementary4.3 mi · 44
- Windsor Elementary5.7 mi · 549
- Westwood Middle School5.8 mi · 624
- Pauline Flett Middle School6.3 mi · 609
Frequently asked questions
About Sunset ElementaryHow many students attend Sunset Elementary?
Sunset Elementary enrolls approximately 634 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Sunset Elementary serve?
Sunset Elementary serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Sunset Elementary?
Approximately 14.6:1 students per teacher at Sunset Elementary.
How diverse is Sunset Elementary?
Sunset Elementary reports a student body of 48% White, 19% Hispanic, 3% Black, 3% Asian, 10% Two or more.
Who oversees Sunset Elementary?
Sunset Elementary is overseen by Cheney School District in Spokane County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.