Summary:
ZIP code 98403 has one middle school, Hilltop Heritage Middle School, serving grades 6–8 in the Tacoma School District; the school enrolls 447 students and serves an area with relatively high economic need.
Because it is the only middle school in the ZIP code, there is no local school-to-school comparison. In 2025–2026, Hilltop Heritage ranked 432nd out of 514 Washington middle schools, placing it in the 16th percentile, and received a one-star rating. Across all grades, proficiency was 32.82% in English language arts, 20.37% in math, and 28.13% in science. These results were below both district and state averages. The school’s strongest relative performance was in seventh grade: 41.01% were proficient in English language arts, and 29.85% were proficient in math, slightly above the district’s math result. Eighth-grade math was the clearest concern, with only 10.24% of students proficient, compared with 21.40% in the district and 38.80% statewide.
Recent trends are also important for families to consider. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, proficiency declined by 8.77 percentage points in English language arts, 4.95 points in math, and 18.02 points in science. The science decline was especially notable because the school had been slightly above the district the prior year but fell well below it in the latest results. About 62.42% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–2025, indicating that many students may benefit from additional academic and support services. Reported spending was $21,482 per student, with a 20:1 student-teacher ratio. Overall, the most significant areas to investigate are eighth-grade math, science instruction, and the schoolwide decline in achievement.
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