Summary:
Zip code 98402 has two high schools, serving grades 9–12 and 10–12: Tacoma School of the Arts and Tacoma Open Doors, both part of the Tacoma School District. The schools offer notably different educational models and serve different student populations, so families should consider program fit and student needs in addition to the reported performance figures.
Tacoma School of the Arts is the stronger performer on conventional academic measures. It enrolls 658 students in grades 9–12 and reported a 96.9% graduation rate in 2024–2025, compared with 91.4% for the district and 82.6% statewide. In 2025–2026, 66.89% of students were proficient in English Language Arts and 51.89% in science, both above district results. Its main concern is mathematics: only 8.16% of students were proficient, well below both the district’s 31.16% and the state’s 43.11%. Math performance also declined from the prior year. The school’s student-teacher ratio was 19.5, and its recent statewide ranking improved to the 51st percentile and three stars.
Tacoma Open Doors enrolls 392 students in grades 10–12 and has a substantially different profile. Its 2024–2025 graduation rate was 10.5%, while its dropout rate was 46.6%, compared with 6.5% in the district. The school also reported a much higher student-teacher ratio of 75.8 and higher free or reduced-price lunch participation, at 63.27% versus 45.74% at Tacoma School of the Arts. Because Tacoma Open Doors may serve students returning to school or pursuing a nontraditional pathway, its results should be interpreted in context. Its science scores were suppressed and therefore cannot be judged from the available data.
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