Enrollment
306
Elementary
DISTRICT 517 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PUYALLUP SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530696001042
Waller Road Elementary
6312 Waller Rd E, Tacoma, WA 98443 · (253) 841-8745 · Pierce County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL306 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.8:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.5:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
61%
186 students
DISTRICT 49% · STATE 51%
Community
0
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 40 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 45 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 39 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 51 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 44 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 47 | 15% |
| Grade 6 | 40 | 13% |
This year's kindergarten class (40) is about the same size as its 6th grade class (40).
Student demographics
66%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · 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
38.3%
WA avg 58.4% . -10.4pp since 2014
Math
35.6%
WA avg 51.2% . -10.4pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 38 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 36 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 10 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 10 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 38.3% | 35.6% |
| 2023-24 | 35.9% | 33.9% |
| 2022-23 | 27.3% | 21.5% |
| 2021-22 | 26.5% | 19.1% |
| 2018-19 | 51.7% | 36.5% |
| 2017-18 | 49.8% | 42.1% |
| 2016-17 | 58.2% | 51.9% |
| 2015-16 | 55.1% | 46.6% |
| 2014-15 | 48.7% | 46.0% |
% 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
36.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
39.4%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 36% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 39% 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 Waller Road Elementary
Waller Road Elementary's state test result (36.2% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waller Road Elementary this school | 306 | 60.8% | 36.2% |
| Garfield Elementary School OLYMPIA | 314 | 60.5% | 37.9% |
| Crownhill Elementary School Bremerton | 317 | 58.0% | 47.8% |
| Leland P Brown Elementary OLYMPIA | 328 | 60.7% | 45.4% |
| Lincoln Elementary School VANCOUVER | 280 | 60.4% | N/A |
| Central Elementary Ferndale | 315 | 65.1% | 41.8% |
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 Waller Road Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Pierce County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 36.2% | #700 of 936 | #113 of 142 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 35.6% | #756 of 1,103 ▲ 17 | #108 of 142 ▼ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 38.3% | #793 of 1,102 ▲ 34 | #114 of 142 ▼ 3 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +14.1pp | #34 of 928 | #6 of 141 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 306 | #935 of 1,268 | #128 of 155 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.8:1 | #134 of 1,085 | #10 of 145 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 66.0% | #377 of 1,088 | #92 of 145 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 60.8% | #434 of 1,169 | #52 of 148 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.5% | #365 of 778 | #44 of 91 |
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
306
-35 (-10%) vs 2020
-1% since 1990-91, when it was 310
Student : Teacher
13.8:1
was 17.1:1
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 | 306 | 22.1 | 13.8:1 | 61% (186) |
| 2023-24 | 295 | 23.7 | 12.4:1 | 59% (173) |
| 2022-23 | 310 | 23.5 | 13.2:1 | 60% (186) |
| 2020-21 | 341 | 20 | 17.1:1 | 54% (185) |
| 2017-18 | 371 | 21.2 | 17.5:1 | 47% (174) |
| 2015-16 | 305 | 16 | 19.1:1 | 50% (153) |
| 2010-11 | 305 | 15 | 20.3:1 | 38% (116) |
| 2000-01 | 275 | 13 | 21.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 310 | 16 | 19.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Waller Road Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (371 to 306); teachers up 4% (21.2 to 22.1).
About Waller Road Elementary
Tacoma, Washington, is home to Waller Road Elementary, a small elementary school. The school offers kindergarten through 6 and enrolls 306 students.
Waller Road Elementary is part of a district of 37 schools: Puyallup School District, with 23,026 students.
At Waller Road Elementary, 52% of students are White. After that, the student body is 21% Hispanic, 14% multiracial, 5% Native American, and 5% Asian. Census figures show Pierce County is about 64% White. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Waller Road Elementary scores 66%.
Waller Road Elementary has 22.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 13.8:1. The school's 13.8:1 compares with an average of 17.3:1 for elementary schools in Washington. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, often used to gauge student poverty, is 61%. That is 11 points above the 50% average for public schools in Pierce County.
Waller Road Elementary posts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 36.2%, compared with a predicted 39.4%. It is not in the top or bottom 10% of Washington schools on BeatsExpectations.
The school is in Pierce County, where median household income comes to about $99,564, roughly 31% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Pierce County's 287 public schools enroll about 138,462 students and include Waller Road Elementary.
First Creek Middle School sits about 1.0 miles from Waller Road Elementary. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. On state test proficiency, Waller Road Elementary ranks 1st in a group of 8 nearby schools.
Federal records code the school's setting as Suburb: Large.
Over the 4 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment fell 10%. The ratio was 17.1:1 in 2020-21 and 13.8:1 in 2024-25.
The Waller Road Elementary discussion page is a place for homework, tutoring, and testing dates. You can also rate the school on this page.
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 Puyallup School District
- Puyallup High SchoolHigh · 1,815 students
- Gov John Rogers High SchoolHigh · 1,788 students
- Emerald Ridge High SchoolHigh · 1,599 students
- Dessie F Evans ElementaryElementary · 919 students
- Ballou Jr HighMiddle · 852 students
- Doris Stahl Junior HighMiddle · 846 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
- First Creek Middle School1.0 mi · 584
- Boze Elementary School1.2 mi · 485
- Lister Elementary School1.2 mi · 376
- Harvard Elementary1.5 mi · 445
- Sheridan Elementary School1.6 mi · 525
- Chief Leschi School1.8 mi · 633
Frequently asked questions
About Waller Road ElementaryHow many students attend Waller Road Elementary?
Waller Road Elementary enrolls approximately 306 students in grades KG-06.
Is Waller Road Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Waller Road Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-06.
How many teachers does Waller Road Elementary have?
Waller Road Elementary employs 22 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.8:1.
How diverse is Waller Road Elementary?
Waller Road Elementary reports a student body of 52% White, 21% Hispanic, 2% Black, 5% Asian, 14% Two or more.
Who oversees Waller Road Elementary?
Waller Road Elementary is overseen by Puyallup School District in Pierce County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.