Spiritridge Elementary School

Bellevue, WA · Grades K–5

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

4½ stars

WA statewide rating — the rank below is this school's statewide position

Top 30% decoded

#349 of 1502

plausibly #228–536

Washington schools

#193 · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Top 15% achievement

#193 of 1502

Washington schools

#160 · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Students score highly, and the school still stands out after accounting for context — students also tend to gain ground while enrolled.

Data confidence:High550 students tested 8 years97% participation

Confidence is computed from sample size, year coverage, and participation rate. Higher confidence means the rank shift is stable across years and not driven by a single small cohort.

  • Tested students: total students with valid scores across all reported years.
  • Years of data: number of school years included. More years smooths year-to-year noise.
  • Participation: share of enrolled students who took the assessment. Low participation can bias scores.

What's driving this rank

Decoded Rank: #349 of 1502

in Washington schools

Raw test scores rank this school #193, but families here have higher-than-average income and educational attainment, so the expected score is also high. After accounting for context, this school performs about as predicted — the Decoded Rank is #349.

Each component below is scored on a 0–100 within-metro scale. A qualitative band summarizes where the school lands.

  • Above averagePerforms above what its context predictsCounts for 39% of the rank

    After accounting for income and demographics, does this school beat what the data would predict?

  • StrongStudents gain ground year over yearCounts for 33% of the rank

    Are kids at this school learning faster than typical for the metro?

  • LowEquity within the schoolCounts for 17% of the rank

    Are students clustered at similar levels, or split between top and bottom?

  • StrongMost students were testedCounts for 11% of the rank

    Was the rank computed against a representative share of the school's students?

Show the numbersFor the methodology-curious

Each component is converted to a 0–100 within-metro percentile (100 = top of the metro). "Contribution" is the percentile-points the component adds to (or subtracts from) the metro median before the schools are re-ranked into the composite.

Per-component contributions to this school's Decoded Rank composite. Weight is the share each component carries; percentile is the school's within-metro score on that component.
ComponentWeightPercentileContribution
Performs above what its context predicts 39%72+8.6
Students gain ground year over year 33%94+14.7
Equity within the school 17%7-7.2
Most students were tested 11%97+5.2

How the Decoded Rank composite is computed

Why trust this?
  • Public data sources
  • Context-adjusted model
  • Confidence shown
  • Methodology published

This score uses state assessment data, NCES enrollment data, and Census ACS 5-year neighborhood data. The Decoded Rank adjusts for school context — student demographics, ELL/SPED service rates, and the socioeconomic profile of the surrounding tract — and shows how the school performs relative to expectation, not in absolute terms.

SchoolDecoder is one signal, not a verdict. Decoded Rank is a context-adjusted residual, not a causal claim about teaching quality. See full methodology →

Strongest Subjects (Decoded)

Decoded rank first; achievement rank in parentheses. Sorted by decoded rank, best first. Science is shown for reference only and is not part of any rank, tier, or composite.

  1. Science

    2024 proficiency69.3%meeting standard

    Tested gradeGrade 5

    81 tested

    202286.7%202387.1%202469.3%

    Shown for reference only — science is not part of any rank.

All Rankings

How this school ranks across the metro, state, and among demographic peers.

ScopeAchievementDecodedShift
WA (1502 schools)#193#349
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (677 schools)#160#193
Among similar schools (6 peers)#4#3

Resource context

School inputs, not ranking points

These fields describe the school and surrounding neighborhood. They help readers interpret the page, but this is not a dollar-by-dollar or ratio-by-ratio scorecard and the fields here are not components of the Decoded Rank.

Enrollment
563
Free/reduced-price lunch
19.2%
Student-teacher ratio
17.1:1
Locale
City, midsize
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$172,891ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
5.9%ACS tract proxy
SES index
87.5
Assessment data year
2024
CCD year
2023
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Bellevue School District: #12 of 21.Middle quintile in district. View district

Performance Spread

How students are distributed across the four state-assessment proficiency levels — L1: below standard, L2: approaching, L3: meets (proficient), L4: exceeds. This describes the shape of results at the school, not their height.

Two distinct groups are visible: a strong cluster at the top and a struggling cluster at the bottom.

  • Level 1 — Below standard16%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard15%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)25%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard44%

Why this matters. A bimodal distribution often reflects two student populations served side-by-side (for example a gifted or honors track alongside a general-population cohort). Aggregate scores can hide this. Look at the school's program mix when comparing.

Performance Spread measures how evenly students are distributed across the L1..L4 proficiency ladder, treating the levels as an ordered scale (L1=1, L2=2, L3=3, L4=4) and weighting each by its student share. A school where most students cluster at one level has a TIGHT spread; a school split between the bottom and top has a WIDE or BIMODAL spread. Bimodal fires only when BOTH tails are non-trivial AND the middle is relatively hollow (pct_L1 ≥ 15, pct_L4 ≥ 25, pct_L2 + pct_L3 ≤ 60). It describes shape — NOT how high the school's scores are. Methodology

Nearby Schools

Sorted by distance. Both rank columns shown so you can compare quickly.

SchoolRatingAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Tillicum Middle School#179#182High
Phantom Lake Elementary#198#164High
Bellevue Big Picture SchoolRank withheld
Eastgate Elementary SchoolRankings coming soon
Sunset Elementary#174#255High

Similar Schools

Schools with comparable demographics, income, and size. Both rank columns shown for direct comparison.

SchoolRatingAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Rose Hill Elementary#83#135High
Enatai Elementary School#170#226High
Mark Twain Elementary#103#259High
Clara Barton Elementary School#54#192High
Frank Love Elementary#243#275High

Historical Ranks

Year-by-year decoded and achievement ranks. Pandemic-affected years are excluded — we don't interpolate scores across the gap.

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2024#160#193
2023#21#92

Note: assessment transitions (where a state changes its test) are footnoted on the methodology page; trends are not computed across breakpoints.

Trajectory

Not used in the Decoded Rank — shown for context only.

2023: percentile 962024: percentile 69

Trending down

Based on 2 years (2023–2024).

Slope: -27.2 pct/yr (no CI — too few years)

Low confidence

How this works: we fit a linear trend across the available years of Decoded percentile, then bucket the slope into a direction. Wide confidence intervals (uncertain trends) collapse to Holding steady. See the methodology page for thresholds.

Cohort Progression

Kids who started 3rd grade here in 2023 lost 44 proficiency points by 4th grade — gaining, versus a metro median of about 0/yr.

Cohort-to-cohort variance is high — interpret the headline cautiously.

Learning rate: +0.3 proficiency points/yr (95% CI -9.7 to 10.4)

Medium confidence

Cohort 20152016201720182019202220232024 Slope
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
365
—
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
358
G5
367
+8.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
336
G4
344
G5
355
+9.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
331
G4
357
G5
358
+13.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
342
G4
369
G5
357
+7.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
336
G4
352
+16.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
338
—
ELA · started 5th in 2022
G5
350
—
ELA · started 4th in 2022
G4
354
G5
348
-5.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2022
G3
337
G4
346
G5
299
-19.0
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
330
G4
286
-43.6
ELA · started 3rd in 2024
G3
294
—
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
363
—
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
357
G5
373
+15.7
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
346
G4
356
G5
351
+2.7
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
333
G4
367
G5
354
+10.4
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
358
G4
363
G5
352
-2.9
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
345
G4
361
+16.1
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
335
—
Math · started 5th in 2022
G5
341
—
Math · started 4th in 2022
G4
353
G5
359
+5.5
Math · started 3rd in 2022
G3
347
G4
355
G5
315
-15.8
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
336
G4
290
-45.7
Math · started 3rd in 2024
G3
299
—

How this works: we follow each grade-cohort across years through the school (3rd graders in 2023 are 4th graders in 2024, etc.) and fit a linear slope on a 100–400 proficiency-points scale built from the state assessment's four levels (L1=1, L2=2, L3=3, L4=4, weighted by student share). This is the same construction Stanford SEDA uses (edopportunity.org/methods); it's not student-level tracking — we measure the school's cohort, not individuals. See the methodology page for thresholds.

Evidence & technical detailClick to expand

School Alpha

School Alpha is the residual between actual and expected performance once school context is held constant. It is a context-adjusted estimate, not a causal claim about teaching quality. Its reliability shows up on the page as the confidence label and the rank interval, not as a standalone statistic.

SES index components

SES method
Blended SES index (ACS + FRL)
SES index value
87.5
FRL %
19.2%
ELL %
23.6% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
SPED %
16.0% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$172,891
Tract poverty rate
5.9%
Tract % bachelor's+
72.3%

What "Decoded Rank" means

Decoded Rank converts School Alpha — the context-adjusted residual — into a parent-facing rank within the metro pool. A higher Decoded Rank than Achievement Rank means the school's raw scores understate its performance once neighborhood and school context are held constant. The reverse means raw scores overstate it. The rank is one signal, not a verdict.

Data & sources

Assessment data
2023–24 school year
NCES CCD vintage
2023
Census ACS 5-year vintage
2020-2024
Last updated
September 4, 2026
Methodology version
0.14.0
Source files (3)

SchoolDecoder publishes context-adjusted residuals, not causal estimates. Decoded Rank is one signal — not a verdict on teaching quality. Read about limitations →