GATES Secondary School
Tacoma · WA · Franklin Pierce School District · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Pierce County Skills Center → Franklin Pierce High School → Gov John Rogers High School → Puyallup Open Doors/POD → Spanaway Lake High School → Evergreen Lutheran High School → Acceleration Academy → Transition 18-21 Program →📋 At a glance
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 22% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 12% by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How GATES Secondary School compares for families
What families should know about GATES Secondary School.
- ▸ LocallyWA sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Pierce County Skills Center, Franklin Pierce High School, Gov John Rogers High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 12% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
📊 State assessment · WA Smarter Balanced · grade 10
SBAC grade 10 — met or exceeded standard
School year 2024-25. Levels 3 + 4 combined ("at or above grade level"). Cells suppressed by the state when sample is small.
Source: WA state DOE Smarter Balanced results. Levels 1–2 = below standard, 3 = met, 4 = exceeded. Headline = level 3 + level 4 combined.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +6.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 104 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pierce County Skills Center Puyallup |
Public | 2.1 | 355 | — |
| Franklin Pierce High School TACOMA |
Public | 2.2 | 977 | -14.7% |
| Gov John Rogers High School Puyallup |
Public | 2.6 | 1,788 | +3.8% |
| Puyallup Open Doors/POD Puyallup |
Public | 2.8 | 124 | +14.8% |
| Spanaway Lake High School Spanaway |
Public | 3.2 | 1,787 | +5.6% |
| Evergreen Lutheran High School Tacoma |
Private | 3.7 | 91 | +4.6% |
| Acceleration Academy Spanaway |
Public | 3.9 | 450 | +60.1% |
| Transition 18-21 Program Spanaway |
Public | 4.0 | 58 | +13.7% |