Original Research by School Decision on Madison Headstart
Madison Headstart is a public preschool program run by Tacoma Public Schools, serving a single grade level: pre-kindergarten. It operates as a regular public school on South 43rd Street in Tacoma. Because it serves only pre-kindergarten, there are no state assessment results, no graduation rate, and no chronic absenteeism data to report. This is not a gap; it is simply that state accountability testing does not begin until later grades, and the school does not have a graduating cohort.
The school is very small and its enrollment is almost entirely composed of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting that the program targets families with economic need. The student body is majority Black, with smaller shares of White, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Information on the share of students with disabilities or who are English learners was not reported in the available data. The school is not a charter and has no magnet designation, and its Title I status was not listed.
Because Madison Headstart is a single-purpose early-learning site, the academic program is by definition focused on pre-kindergarten readiness. No data on course access, staffing ratios, or discipline was available for this school. The only relevant context is that it sits within the Tacoma School District, which operates elementary, middle, and high schools across the city.
Tacoma is a mid-sized port city and the county seat of Pierce County. It has a working waterfront, a downtown Museum District, and distinct neighborhoods including Hilltop, Proctor, and the Stadium District. The economy is anchored by healthcare, retail, education, and the Port of Tacoma. The city is growing steadily, and housing costs have risen, though the median home value is lower than the state average. Rents have increased, and homeownership rates are below the national average. The city is car-dependent overall, though some neighborhoods are walkable.
For a family considering Madison Headstart, the key takeaway is that this is a small, targeted pre-kindergarten program serving a high-needs population. Parents who want data on how the school prepares children for kindergarten or what the classroom environment is like will need to seek that information directly from the school or the district, as the available records do not include any measures of academic readiness, teacher qualifications, or classroom structure. The school does not have a profile for the kinds of metrics that apply to elementary or secondary schools. It serves only one purpose, and that purpose is early childhood education for a small group of children in the Tacoma area.
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