Tacoma School of the Arts

📋 At a glance

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

• ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 68th percentile nationally with 4 AP courses.
• ▸ 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: Tacoma Pierce County Education Center, Comm Based Trans Program, Special Services and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

68th percentile nationally

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

👩‍🏫 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

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

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: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. 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.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +2.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 658 students:

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue upside

At $19,705 per student in district revenue, the 73 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $1,438,465/year in additional funding.

District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.