Best High Schools in Zip Code 98407

ZIP code 98407 has one high school: Science and Math Institute, serving grades 9–12 in Tacoma’s North Pearl Street area. The school enrolls 597 students and is part of Tacoma School District. Because it is the only high school in the ZIP code, there are no local school-to-school comparisons; the most useful context comes from comparing its results with district and Washington state performance.

Science and Math Institute’s strongest current subjects are English Language Arts and science. In 2025–2026, 68.71% of students were proficient in ELA, compared with 44.33% in the district and 52.81% statewide. Science proficiency was 62.93%, above the district’s 42.31% and the state’s 50.95%. Math was more mixed but showed the biggest improvement: proficiency rose from 28.46% in 2024–2025 to 42.95% in 2025–2026. The latest math result was 11.79 percentage points above the district and nearly equal to the state rate. Tenth-grade math was particularly strong, exceeding district performance by 21.59 points and the state by 7.53 points.

For parents, the school’s overall academic profile is strong, although results vary by subject and year. ELA declined by 7.85 points and science by 12.07 points from the prior year, so those areas merit continued monitoring despite remaining above district and state averages. The school ranked in the 83rd percentile statewide in 2025–2026 and received four stars, consistent with four-star ratings in the two previous years. Other context includes a 20.5-to-1 student-teacher ratio, 35.68% free or reduced-price lunch participation, and reported spending of $16,923 per student in 2023–2024. A separate district ranking places the school at the 37th percentile, but that measure likely uses different criteria and should not be directly compared with the statewide ranking.