Turnagain Elementary

Turnagain Elementary is a pre-K through grade 6 school in Anchorage, Alaska, serving about 247 students as part of the Anchorage School District, a three-star district. Turnagain’s own rating has dropped to two stars after peaking with four stars in 2021–2022. At 106th out of 166 Alaska elementary schools, it currently sits in the lower-middle tier of its neighborhood. Nearby standouts such as Chugach Optional Elementary and Aquarian Charter School rank near the top of the state, while higher-poverty schools, including Northwood ABC and North Star Elementary, are far lower. Turnagain falls between them — ahead of the most challenged schools, but well behind the strongest.

In reading, 37.5% of Turnagain students are proficient, a bit above the district and state averages. Math is less encouraging: proficiency has fallen for three straight years, from roughly 42% in 2023 to 33.75% today, placing the school below the district average. Science has also faded. Two years ago, 66.7% of students were proficient in science — about 28 points above the district — but that figure has now dropped to roughly 39%, right at the district average. Grade-level results point to fourth grade as the clearest trouble spot, especially in math, where only 22.4% of students are proficient, almost 14 points behind the district. Third-grade and fifth-grade reading scores look much healthier by comparison.

Turnagain’s student population is not extremely high-poverty; about 37% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, far less than local schools like Willow Crest, Gladys Wood, or North Star, where the rate is above 75%. Yet Turnagain’s math performance looks more like that high-poverty group than like comparable schools such as Kincaid and Sand Lake. Its 17.8-to-1 student-teacher ratio is also among the highest of nearby schools. One notable pattern is that girls’ results have stayed near average while boys’ performance has dropped sharply over the past few years. Turnagain has clear assets — moderate poverty, some strong subject-area results, and a history of high performance — but reversing the school’s steady decline will likely require a deliberate focus on math and on the students currently losing the most ground.