Olympic View Elementary School, Federal Way WA

Original Research by School Decision on Olympic View Elementary School

Olympic View Elementary School is a regular public school serving students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in the Federal Way School District. The school is situated in the mid-sized city of Federal Way, a suburban community between Seattle and Tacoma that grew as a bedroom community after Interstate 5 opened. Federal Way is primarily car-oriented, with landscaped apartment complexes and shopping centers along major arterials, though a Link light rail station opened in late 2025 at the city’s transit center.

The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by smaller groups of white, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade, with a small number of prekindergarten students.

State testing data from the most recent school year shows that proficiency rates in both math and English language arts are low. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was roughly a quarter in third and fourth grades, then dropped to about a tenth in fifth grade. In English language arts, proficiency rates ranged from under a fifth in third grade to about a third in sixth grade. On the fifth-grade science assessment, about a fifth of students were proficient. When looking at the combined results across tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in King County.

The school serves a narrow grade band that ends at sixth grade, so there is no high school graduation rate reported here. Whether this is a good fit depends on what a family is looking for. The academic attainment numbers are soft, and a parent may want to discuss with the school how they support students who are below grade-level expectations. The school’s profile is that of a high-need elementary serving a predominantly low-income student population, and the test results reflect that context.

The community itself is stable. Federal Way’s population has seen a slight decline in recent years, and the housing market in the area reflects the broader King County trend of high values. The city has developed a planned City Center with a performing arts center, a town square park, and the new light rail station. Major employers include the school district itself, World Vision International, a hospital, and a regional postal distribution center. The school district did not have recent parent-relevant changes publicly reported, so that section is left out rather than guessed.

For a family considering Olympic View Elementary, the key takeaways are the diversity of the student body, the high level of economic need, and the low proficiency rates on state assessments. The school is a neighborhood elementary in a mid-sized suburban city with an improving transit connection to the broader Seattle area.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 36% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 52% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 28% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 45 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 32% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 33% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 39% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 30% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Science

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 33% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

This schoolFederal Way School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income58%41 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income44%23 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income23%Higher-income40%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income50%29 pp gap