Lutacaga Elementary

Othello, WA · Grades K–6

Othello, WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

Top 15% decoded

Small comparison pool (9 schools) — interpret with caution

Othello, WA schools

★★ Outperforming Expectations

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Bottom 15% achievement

Small comparison pool (9 schools) — interpret with caution

Othello, WA schools

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Raw scores are modest, but the school outperforms what its context predicts, and students tend to gain ground relative to peers while enrolled.

Data confidence:High604 students tested 7 years100% 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: #2 of 9

in Othello, WA 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 35% 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 30% of the rank

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

  • StrongEquity within the schoolCounts for 15% of the rank

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

  • StrongDirection 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%78+9.7
Students gain ground year over year 30%67+5.0
Equity within the school 15%89+5.8
Direction over recent years 10%100+5.0
Most students were tested 10%100+5.0

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
Othello, WA (9 schools)#9#2
WA (1503 schools)#1353#247
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
552
Free/reduced-price lunch
85.1%
Student-teacher ratio
14.5:1
Locale
Town, distant
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$67,255ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
0.3%ACS tract proxy
SES index
10.5
Assessment data year
2024
CCD year
2023
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Othello School District: #2 of 5.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.

Students at this school cluster closely on the proficiency ladder.

  • Level 1 — Below standard49%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard26%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)18%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard8%

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
Desert Oasis High School Rankings coming soon.
McFarland Middle School#8#4High
Othello High School Rankings coming soon.
Early Childhood Center Rankings coming soon.
Scootney Springs Elementary#6#5High

Similar Schools

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

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Hiawatha Elementary School#5#1High
Sunnycrest Elementary School#666#469High
Midway Elementary#675#489High
Chief Kamiakin Elementary School#35#35High
Wildwood Elementary School#557#301High

Historical Ranks

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

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2024#9#2
2023#10#4

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

Trajectory

2023: percentile 602024: percentile 78

Trending up

Based on 2 years (2023–2024).

Slope: +17.8 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 4th grade here in 2023 lost 6 proficiency points by 5th grade — declining, versus a metro median of about 0/yr.

Based on 16 cohorts across math + ELA.

Learning rate: -0.7 proficiency points/yr (95% CI -7.3 to 5.9)

Medium confidence

Cohort 2015201620172018201920232024 Slope
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
221
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
197
G5
205
+8.6
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
186
G4
180
G5
181
-2.6
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
200
G4
196
G5
200
G6
198
-0.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
180
G4
179
G5
180
-0.1
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
188
G4
193
+4.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
166
ELA · started 6th in 2023
G6
181
ELA · started 5th in 2023
G5
191
G6
190
-1.1
ELA · started 4th in 2023
G4
150
G5
165
+15.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
159
G4
172
+12.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2024
G3
165
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
247
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
220
G5
230
+10.1
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
220
G4
195
G5
182
-19.2
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
213
G4
203
G5
209
G6
179
-9.7
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
216
G4
222
G5
215
-0.6
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
244
G4
233
-11.7
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
234
Math · started 6th in 2023
G6
157
Math · started 5th in 2023
G5
205
G6
185
-19.8
Math · started 4th in 2023
G4
173
G5
167
-6.1
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
162
G4
196
+34.1
Math · started 3rd in 2024
G3
232

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)
+0.35 (95% CI: +0.31 to +0.39)

SES index components

SES method
Blended SES index (ACS + FRL)
SES index value
10.5
FRL %
85.1%
ELL %
60.0% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
SPED %
12.4% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$67,255
Tract poverty rate
0.3%
Tract % bachelor's+
11.2%

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 →