Chinook Middle School, Lacey WA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Chinook Middle School

Chinook Middle School serves sixth through eighth graders in Lacey, Washington, as part of the North Thurston Public Schools district. The school sits in a suburban residential community that has grown from a bedroom commuter town for Olympia and nearby military bases into a city of its own, bisected by Interstate 5 and anchored by retail corridors, warehouse distribution centers, and a civic campus. Lacey’s housing market is expensive relative to national benchmarks, and rent has been rising, which matters for families considering the area.

The school’s enrollment is large for a middle school. The student body is diverse: roughly two out of every five students are white, about three out of ten are Hispanic, and the remaining students are split among Asian, Black, multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native identities. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the profile, which is a gap a parent may want to ask the school about directly.

Chinook’s academic performance, based on the most recent state assessments, shows a split across subjects. In English language arts, roughly half of students met the state’s proficiency bar in each grade, a rate that landed the school below the midpoint among districts in Thurston County on a composite proficiency index. Math results were notably weaker, with about three out of ten students scoring proficient in sixth grade, a similar share in seventh, and closer to a quarter in eighth grade. Science, tested only in eighth grade, showed a little fewer than half of students at proficiency. These figures represent a single year of data with no prior trend for comparison, so it is not possible to say whether performance is improving or declining. Parents may want to ask the school what supports are in place for students who are below grade level in math, given the gap between math and English outcomes.

Because Chinook is a middle school and not a high school, there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for the grade band. The school’s state testing results are the primary academic signal available.

The community context matters for how a family experiences the school. Lacey is a car-dependent city without a traditional walkable downtown; the built environment is made up of subdivisions, strip development, and large retail centers. The city has been adding warehouse and distribution facilities, and a major casino resort is planned nearby. Public transit exists through Intercity Transit, including a bus rapid transit line. The city’s growth has been steady, and the housing stock reflects that demand. For a family choosing a school, Chinook sits in a large district with multiple middle school options, so the peer environment and academic profile here should be weighed alongside what other district middle schools offer.

All told, Chinook Middle School presents a picture of a large, diverse suburban middle school where English language arts results are closer to the middle of the county pack and math results trail that mark. The school serves a community that is growing and suburban in character, and families looking into it will want to understand how the school addresses its areas of lower academic attainment, particularly in mathematics.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 34% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 37% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 33% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 32% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 753%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 33% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Science

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 43% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolNorth Thurston Public Schools, 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 5Lower-income36%Higher-income64%28 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income72%33 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income36%Higher-income71%35 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income70%28 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income26%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income44%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income43%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income19%Higher-income32%14 pp gap