Olympic Hills Elementary School

Seattle, WA · Grades ?–5

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

Middle 40% decoded

#216 of 678

plausibly #183–260

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

Performing as Expected

#370 in WA

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Middle 40% achievement

#284 of 678

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

#409 in WA

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Raw scores are modest, but students tend to gain ground relative to peers while enrolled.

Data confidence:High416 students tested 7 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: #216 of 678

in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA schools

Raw test scores rank this school #284, but after accounting for context, students here outperform what the data would predict. The Decoded Rank places it at #216.

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?

  • LowEquity 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%64+5.0
Students gain ground year over year 30%69+5.8
Equity within the school 15%7-6.5
Direction over recent years 10%100+5.0
Most students were tested 10%97+4.7

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)#284#216
WA (1503 schools)#409#370
Among similar schools (6 peers)#3#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
485
Free/reduced-price lunch
55.3%
Student-teacher ratio
14.3:1
Locale
City, large
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$138,472ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
0.1%ACS tract proxy
SES index
73.7
Assessment data year
2024
CCD year
2023
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Seattle School District No. 1: #40 of 78.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 standard22%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard21%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)24%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard32%

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.

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Hazel Wolf K-8#205#178High
Cedar Park Elementary School#110#96Medium
Jane Addams Middle School#235#219Medium
Fircrest Residential Habilitation Rankings coming soon.
Shorecrest High School Rankings coming soon.

Similar Schools

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

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Gregory Heights Elementary#358#367High
Monroe Elementary#222#75High
Hedden Elementary School#375#491High
College Place Middle School#488#346Medium
View Ridge Elementary#229#196High

Historical Ranks

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

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2024#284#216
2023#354#395

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

Trajectory

2023: percentile 332024: percentile 64

Trending up

Based on 2 years (2023–2024).

Slope: +31.0 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 2017 lost 30 proficiency points by 5th grade — declining, versus a metro median of about 0/yr.

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

Learning rate: -1.2 proficiency points/yr (95% CI -12.1 to 9.8)

Medium confidence

Cohort 2015201620172018201920232024 Slope
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
291
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
294
G5
309
+14.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
336
G4
309
G5
310
-13.0
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
325
G4
248
G5
250
-37.5
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
264
G4
274
G5
270
+3.1
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
266
G4
273
+7.4
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
270
ELA · started 5th in 2023
G5
238
ELA · started 4th in 2023
G4
277
G5
281
+4.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
234
G4
247
+12.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2024
G3
267
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
282
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
276
G5
288
+12.5
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
316
G4
330
G5
290
-13.0
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
314
G4
270
G5
249
-32.3
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
306
G4
270
G5
276
-14.9
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
278
G4
309
+31.1
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
310
Math · started 5th in 2023
G5
231
Math · started 4th in 2023
G4
261
G5
279
+17.2
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
241
G4
262
+20.3
Math · started 3rd in 2024
G3
257

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)
+0.22 (95% CI: +0.18 to +0.25)

SES index components

SES method
Blended SES index (ACS + FRL)
SES index value
73.7
FRL %
55.3%
ELL %
24.5% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
SPED %
23.0% · WA OSPI Report Card Enrollment
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$138,472
Tract poverty rate
0.1%
Tract % bachelor's+
59.5%

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 →