24 public K-12 schools in Lacey from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Lacey has more public-school enrollment than 89% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Lacey's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.
Lacey's list includes 9 elementary, 5 middle, and 4 high-school campuses, plus 6 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.
The 31-point gap between North Thurston High School and Ignite Family Academy shows the range hidden by Lacey's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Lacey school enrollment ranges from 100 students (lowest) to 1,547 students (highest), a spread of 1,447 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Lacey's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | North Thurston High School | 46 |
| 2. | Envision Career Academy | 46 |
| 3. | Aspire Middle School | 44 |
| 4. | Timberline High School | 43 |
| 5. | Chinook Middle School | 42 |
| 6. | Summit Virtual Academy | 42 |
| 7. | River Ridge High School | 41 |
| 8. | Komachin Middle School | 41 |
| 9. | Lakes Elementary School | 41 |
| 10. | Nisqually Middle School | 38 |
| 11. | Salish Middle School | 38 |
| 12. | Evergreen Forest Elementary | 38 |
| 13. | Woodland Elementary | 37 |
| 14. | Lacey Elementary | 34 |
| 15. | South Bay Elementary | 32 |
| 16. | Olympic View Elementary | 32 |
| 17. | Mountain View Elementary | 30 |
| 18. | Chambers Prairie Elementary School | 30 |
| 19. | Seven Oaks Elementary | 30 |
| 20. | Meadows Elementary | 28 |
| 21. | Pleasant Glade Elementary | 28 |
| 22. | Horizons Elementary | 27 |
| 23. | Lydia Hawk Elementary | 27 |
| 24. | Ignite Family Academy | 15 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
North Thurston High School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Lacey schools in this federal-data comparison at 46/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Lacey has 24 public schools with a total enrollment of 15,167 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 18.1:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Washington →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
