Ignite Family Academy, Lacey WA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Ignite Family Academy

Ignite Family Academy is an alternative school within the North Thurston Public Schools district, serving kindergarten through eighth grade from a location on 6th Avenue NE in Lacey. Lacey itself is a suburban residential community that grew as a bedroom town for Olympia, nearby military bases, and Tacoma. It is a car-dependent city without a traditional walkable downtown, bisected by Interstate 5, and defined by retail corridors and residential subdivisions. The city is experiencing steady growth, with large warehouse and distribution centers shaping the Hawks Prairie area, new healthcare facilities opening, and plans for a tribal casino resort moving forward.

The school’s student body is small and predominantly white, with a much smaller share of students identifying as two or more races, Hispanic, Asian, or Black. A small portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Because Ignite Family Academy is an alternative school, its academic data warrants a particular kind of reading. Alternative schools in Washington often serve students who have chosen a different instructional model, and their testing populations can be small. That small-n context is directly visible in the state assessment results. For several tested grade levels in math, and for the older grades in both English language arts and science, the state has suppressed the proficiency results because the number of students tested is too small to report publicly. Parents should not interpret a suppressed result as a weak one; it is a data-privacy measure that simply means the group was too small to release.

For the grade levels where results are reported, the picture is uneven. In third grade, all students tested met the bar in both math and English language arts. Sixth graders also showed universal proficiency in English language arts. Fourth grade and fifth grade English language arts results were mixed, with a majority but not all students meeting the standard. In math, fourth grade and sixth grade results varied, with a strong majority of sixth graders proficient but a smaller majority of fourth graders hitting the mark. Fifth grade science scores, where reported, showed every student tested meeting the standard. Overall across the grades with reportable data, the school’s composite proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Thurston County. This is a strong relative showing, though it is important to hold that alongside the fact that many grade-level results were too small to report, meaning the index is built from only a portion of the school’s total testing picture.

There is no graduation rate because the school does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism data and discipline data were not available. The school’s website was not provided, and the district brief from the web search returned little actionable information about recent levy or referendum activity.

For a family considering Ignite Family Academy, the core question is whether the alternative-school model and small learning environment match the student’s needs. The academic data that is available suggests solid performance in the grades that can be measured, but the large share of suppressed results means a parent cannot get a full, grade-by-grade picture of how students across the school are performing on state tests. A direct conversation with the school about its instructional approach, class sizes, and the reasons families choose it would be a sensible next step.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 37% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 47% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 34% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 37% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 49% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 53% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 6100%

School 100% · District 32% · ▲ 68 pts above district

▲ 53 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

Science

Grade 5100%

School 100% · District 52% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 48 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above 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.