Discovery Elementary

Everett, WA · Grades K–5

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

Middle 40% decoded

#365 of 678

plausibly #337–397

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

Performing as Expected

#757 in WA

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Bottom 15% achievement

#583 of 678

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

#1243 in WA

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Raw achievement and decoded performance are both close to expected for this school's context.

Data confidence:High610 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: #365 of 678

in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

Raw test scores rank this school #583, but after accounting for context, students here outperform what the data would predict. The Decoded Rank places it at #365.

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 35% of the rank

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

  • LowStudents gain ground year over yearCounts for 30% of the rank

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

  • About averageEquity within the schoolCounts for 15% of the rank

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

  • About averageDirection over recent yearsCounts for 10% of the rank

    Is this school's Decoded Rank trending up or down across the years we have data for?

  • StrongMost students were testedCounts for 10% 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 35%62+4.3
Students gain ground year over year 30%19-9.4
Equity within the school 15%52+0.2
Direction over recent years 10%50+0.0
Most students were tested 10%98+4.8

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 →

All Rankings

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

ScopeAchievementDecodedShift
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (678 schools)#583#365
WA (1503 schools)#1243#757
Among similar schools (6 peers)#6#4

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
583
Free/reduced-price lunch
66.7%
Student-teacher ratio
14.6:1
Locale
Suburb, large
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$67,348ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
0.1%ACS tract proxy
SES index
28.0
Assessment data year
2024
CCD year
2023
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Mukilteo School District: #10 of 16.Bottom-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.

Students at this school are typically spread across proficiency levels.

  • Level 1 — Below standard46%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard23%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)19%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard11%

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.

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Voyager Middle School#566#220High
Mariner High School Rankings coming soon.
Olivia Park Elementary#523#359High
Odyssey Elementary#440#508High
ACES High School Rankings coming soon.

Similar Schools

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

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Alpac Elementary School#374#124High
Lea Hill Elementary School#472#157High
Fuerza Elementary#38#58High
Lake Stickney Elementary School#503#673High
Highland Middle School#567#599Medium

Historical Ranks

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

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2024#583#365
2023#583#304

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

Trajectory

2023: percentile 632024: percentile 62

Holding steady

Based on 2 years (2023–2024).

Slope: -0.4 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 1 proficiency point by 4th grade — declining, versus a metro median of about 0/yr.

Based on 14 cohorts across math + ELA.

Learning rate: -0.7 proficiency points/yr (95% CI -6.1 to 4.8)

Medium confidence

Cohort 2015201620172018201920232024 Slope
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
210
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
224
G5
224
-0.2
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
200
G4
212
G5
225
+12.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
207
G4
241
G5
244
+18.6
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
217
G4
231
G5
230
+6.2
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
211
G4
220
+8.8
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
212
ELA · started 5th in 2023
G5
230
ELA · started 4th in 2023
G4
220
G5
224
+3.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
173
G4
194
+20.5
ELA · started 3rd in 2024
G3
191
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
226
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
245
G5
220
-24.5
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
221
G4
245
G5
210
-5.6
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
220
G4
234
G5
209
-5.5
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
247
G4
234
G5
179
-34.2
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
222
G4
220
-2.2
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
199
Math · started 5th in 2023
G5
172
Math · started 4th in 2023
G4
192
G5
182
-9.9
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
183
G4
182
-0.8
Math · started 3rd in 2024
G3
199

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.

Shrunk Alpha (95% CI)
+0.19 (95% CI: +0.16 to +0.22)

SES index components

SES method
Blended SES index (ACS + FRL)
SES index value
28.0
FRL %
66.7%
ELL %
42.5% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
SPED %
21.6% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$67,348
Tract poverty rate
0.1%
Tract % bachelor's+
20.9%

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
July 26, 2026
Methodology version
0.9.0
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 →