Ptarmigan Elementary

Ptarmigan Elementary is a PK–6 school in eastern Anchorage, Alaska, serving 392 students within the Anchorage School District. For the 2025–2026 school year, it ranked 161st out of 166 Alaska elementary schools (3rd percentile), and it has typically ranked between the 2nd and 14th percentile statewide over the past decade. Like several nearby schools, Ptarmigan serves a high-poverty community — 83.2% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — and its academic results have fallen sharply in recent years.

Only 9.4% of Ptarmigan students are proficient in English language arts, 13.2% in math, and 13.5% in science — all far below district and state averages. That ELA rate is the lowest in the area, just below Muldoon Elementary's 9.9%, while Susitna Elementary reaches 25.2% proficiency in reading and Russian Jack Elementary posts a math proficiency rate more than double Ptarmigan's. These gaps matter because nearby schools serving similar high-poverty populations are getting better results. The school's performance has also declined sharply since 2022–2023: ELA proficiency dropped by 12.1 percentage points and science by 12.0 points, while district and state averages held roughly steady.

Ptarmigan's per-student spending of about $21,004 is far above Russian Jack Elementary's $16,896 and Susitna Elementary's $13,238 — even though both of those schools outperform it in several subjects. Its student–teacher ratio of 15:1 is also lower (more staff per student) than Muldoon Elementary's 18.3, which suggests resource levels and class sizes are not the main barrier. Within the school, 5th graders tend to score higher than 3rd and 4th graders in reading and math, and past ratings show the school has sometimes served certain student subgroups reasonably well. However, Ptarmigan has declined steeply in recent years and is now among the lowest-performing schools in the district, pointing to a need for targeted support across all grade levels and student groups.