Tacoma School District

Tacoma School District serves 28,272 students across 69 schools in Washington State, making it one of the larger urban districts in the Pacific Northwest. Of those 69 schools, 62 carry ranked scores — a high completion rate that gives parents reliable data for most enrollment decisions. The district's average school score lands at 6.4 out of 10, a baseline that reflects the full range of neighborhood schools alongside some genuinely high-performing campuses.

The elementary tier is where Tacoma's strongest numbers concentrate. Washington Elementary School leads the district with a 9.2 out of 10, the highest score among all 62 ranked schools. Downing Elementary follows at 9.0, and three additional elementary schools — Browns Point, Point Defiance, and Jefferson — each score in the 8.7 to 8.8 range. That cluster of five high-scoring elementaries gives families real options at the foundational grade levels, and the scores hold up well as comparative benchmarks against peer urban districts.

The district's 6.4 average means performance varies significantly by school. Parents comparing across campuses should look at individual school scores rather than leaning on the district average — the gap between the top-rated elementary and a school at the average is nearly three full points. Families zoned for schools below the district mean have the strongest case for exploring open enrollment or charter alternatives, while those in the northwest and central areas of Tacoma closest to the top-scoring elementaries generally have access to above-average options without leaving the district.

With 28,272 students and 69 campuses, Tacoma offers enough school variety that targeted school selection — rather than district-level decisions — is the more useful lens. The concentration of 8.7-plus scores in elementary schools signals that the early-grades pipeline is the district's clearest competitive strength. Parents entering the system at kindergarten have the most to gain from active school selection, and the data here supports building a short list starting with Washington Elementary, Downing, and Browns Point before weighing commute and program fit.