Parkview Elementary School

Bellingham, WA · Grades ?–5

Bellingham, WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

4½ stars

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

Top 30% decoded

#389 of 1502

Washington schools

#6 · Bellingham metro

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Top 30% achievement

#365 of 1502

Washington schools

#2 · Bellingham metro

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Raw scores are high here, about what the school's context predicts.

Data confidence:High362 students tested 7 years98% 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: #389 of 1502

in Washington schools

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?

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

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

  • Below averageEquity 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+8.4
Students gain ground year over year 33%79+9.8
Equity within the school 17%23-4.5
Most students were tested 11%98+5.4

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

    2023 proficiency86.4%meeting standard

    Tested gradeGrade 5

    61 tested

    202257.9%202386.4%

    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)#365#389
Bellingham, WA (37 schools)#2#6
Among similar schools (6 peers)#2#2

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
399
Free/reduced-price lunch
34.1%
Student-teacher ratio
16.6:1
Locale
City, small
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$89,779ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
11.6%ACS tract proxy
SES index
59.1
Assessment data year
2023
CCD year
2022
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Bellingham School District: #5 of 18.Top-40% 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 standard22%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard18%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)26%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard34%

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
Sunnyland Elementary School#15#18High
Columbia Elementary School#5#13High
Whatcom Middle School#8#3High
Bellingham Re-Engagement ProgramRanking unavailable
Bellingham High School#1#1HSHS outcomeHS pool

Similar Schools

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

SchoolRatingAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Silverdale Elementary#15#12High
Salmon Creek Elementary#18#24High
Valley View Elementary School#1#2High
Silver Ridge Elementary#26#27High
Twin City Elementary#371#588High

Historical Ranks

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

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2023#2#6

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.

Not enough years yet

Trajectory will appear once we have two or more years of rankings for this school.

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 4th grade here in 2022 lost 16 proficiency points by 5th grade — declining about 3× faster than the metro median.

Based on 14 cohorts across math + ELA.

Learning rate: -2.7 proficiency points/yr (95% CI -9.7 to 4.4)

Medium confidence

Cohort 2015201620172018201920222023 Slope
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
268
—
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
298
G5
294
-3.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
275
G4
283
G5
271
-1.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
225
G4
246
G5
254
+14.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
288
G4
263
G5
271
-8.0
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
240
G4
264
+23.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
264
—
ELA · started 5th in 2022
G5
258
—
ELA · started 4th in 2022
G4
321
G5
305
-16.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2022
G3
245
G4
253
+7.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
263
—
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
230
—
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
283
G5
282
-0.6
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
287
G4
260
G5
255
-15.8
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
250
G4
248
G5
242
-3.8
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
288
G4
255
G5
244
-21.8
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
260
G4
241
-19.3
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
272
—
Math · started 5th in 2022
G5
233
—
Math · started 4th in 2022
G4
304
G5
308
+4.9
Math · started 3rd in 2022
G3
244
G4
257
+12.9
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
242
—

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
59.1
FRL %
34.1%
ELL %
7.3% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
SPED %
18.6% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$89,779
Tract poverty rate
11.6%
Tract % bachelor's+
49.0%

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
2022–23 school year
NCES CCD vintage
2022
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 →