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What's the state of after-school transportation at Surprise Lake Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
613
Middle
DISTRICT 569 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FIFE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530288000467
Surprise Lake Middle School
2001 Milton Way, Milton, WA 98354 · (253) 517-1300 · Pierce County
GRADES 06–07MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL613 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 33% 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.
- A-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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
21.9:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.2:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
55%
340 students
DISTRICT 57% · 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 | 299 | 49% |
| Grade 7 | 314 | 51% |
Student demographics
76%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 76% · 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
Surprise Lake Middle School→Columbia Junior High School
Based on grade levels within Fife School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
41.4%
WA avg 58.4% . -27.5pp since 2014
Math
28.0%
WA avg 51.2% . -16.3pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 41 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 28 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 28 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 16 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 41.4% | 28.0% |
| 2023-24 | 38.5% | 26.6% |
| 2022-23 | 36.9% | 20.7% |
| 2021-22 | 36.8% | 19.7% |
| 2018-19 | 52.2% | 43.0% |
| 2017-18 | 57.8% | 41.5% |
| 2016-17 | 54.5% | 41.3% |
| 2015-16 | 62.2% | 47.0% |
| 2014-15 | 69.0% | 44.3% |
% 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
33.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.0%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-9.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 34% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 43% 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 Surprise Lake Middle School
Surprise Lake Middle School's state test result (33.6% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surprise Lake Middle School this school | 613 | 55.5% | 33.6% |
| Chinook Middle School Lacey | 746 | 55.5% | 38.8% |
| Komachin Middle School Lacey | 640 | 48.8% | 42.2% |
| Sylvester Middle School Burien | 582 | 49.5% | 35.2% |
| Nisqually Middle School Lacey | 789 | 51.3% | 29.9% |
| North Middle School Everett | 719 | 61.2% | 43.1% |
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 Surprise Lake Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 33.6% | #203 of 294 | #32 of 45 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 28.0% | #229 of 357 ▲ 1 | #30 of 45 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 41.4% | #228 of 357 ▲ 17 | #31 of 45 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +6.5pp | #55 of 290 | #11 of 45 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 613 | #191 of 377 | #27 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 21.9:1 | #303 of 340 | #37 of 44 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 75.6% | #35 of 340 | #15 of 44 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 55.5% | #149 of 359 | #16 of 45 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +2.2% | #106 of 130 | #15 of 19 |
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
613
+27 (+5%) vs 2020
+23% since 1990-91, when it was 499
Student : Teacher
21.9:1
was 20.9:1
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 | 613 | 28 | 21.9:1 | 55% (340) |
| 2023-24 | 667 | 28 | 23.8:1 | 57% (379) |
| 2022-23 | 650 | 29.7 | 21.9:1 | 54% (349) |
| 2020-21 | 586 | 28 | 20.9:1 | 46% (267) |
| 2017-18 | 600 | 26.8 | 22.4:1 | 42% (249) |
| 2015-16 | 577 | 25 | 23.1:1 | 48% (277) |
| 2010-11 | 527 | 23 | 22.9:1 | 46% (243) |
| 2000-01 | 655 | 30 | 21.8:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 499 | 21 | 23.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Surprise Lake Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 2% (600 to 613); teachers up 5% (26.8 to 28).
About Surprise Lake Middle School
Surprise Lake Middle School is a medium-sized middle school in Fife School District, located in Milton, Washington. The student body numbers 613 students, from grades 6 through 7.
The district, Fife School District, has 3,983 students enrolled across 7 schools.
The most common group at Surprise Lake Middle School is White students, at 38%. It is also 24% Hispanic, 12% multiracial, 8% Asian, and 8% Black. Pierce County's residents are about 64% White, 26 points above the school's share. Pick two students at random and there is a 76% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The school reports 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 21.9 students per teacher. That is 3.0 students per teacher above the 18.9:1 average for middle schools in Washington. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility covers 55% of students.
The allk12 Grade for Surprise Lake Middle School is C. Compared with Washington public middle schools, the school scored higher than 33% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 43.0% for Surprise Lake Middle School. The school posts 33.6%, 9.4 points below the prediction.
Census Bureau estimates for Pierce County show that the median household income is $99,564, 31% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 6% of people live in poverty. Surprise Lake Middle School is one of 287 public schools in the county.
Nearest public school: Discovery Primary School, about 0.1 miles away. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Surprise Lake Middle School at 5th of 7.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Suburb: Large: in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Compared with 2020-21, the school had 27 more students in 2024-25.
Conversations here can range across school safety, transportation, and start times. 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 Fife School District
- Fife High SchoolHigh · 885 students
- Fife Elementary SchoolElementary · 866 students
- Columbia Junior High SchoolHigh · 619 students
- Discovery Primary SchoolElementary · 506 students
- Hedden Elementary SchoolElementary · 469 students
- Fife Open DoorsHigh · 25 students
Nearby schools
- Discovery Primary School0.1 mi · 506
- Northwood Elementary0.8 mi · 732
- Edgemont Jr High1.4 mi · 590
- Hedden Elementary School1.4 mi · 469
- Rainier View Elementary School1.7 mi · 495
- Todd Beamer High School2.1 mi · 1,412
Frequently asked questions
About Surprise Lake Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Surprise Lake Middle School?
Surprise Lake Middle School enrolls approximately 613 students in grades 06-07.
What age range does Surprise Lake Middle School serve?
Surprise Lake Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 07.
How many students per teacher at Surprise Lake Middle School?
Approximately 21.9:1 students per teacher at Surprise Lake Middle School.
How diverse is Surprise Lake Middle School?
Surprise Lake Middle School reports a student body of 38% White, 24% Hispanic, 8% Black, 8% Asian, 12% Two or more.
What district is Surprise Lake Middle School in?
Surprise Lake Middle School is part of Fife School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.