/* Crawler / no-JS fallback only. Mirrors the SPA TOP-10 roster style: numbered, uppercase name, dim district·county below, right-aligned value. */ .atlas-fallback { font-family: 'JetBrains Mono', ui-monospace, Menlo, Consolas, monospace; color: #15243a; background: #f7f1e3; padding: 24px 18px; max-width: 760px; margin: 0 auto; line-height: 1.55; } .atlas-fallback header h1 { font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.04em; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0 0 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid #15243a; padding-bottom: 8px; } .atlas-fallback p { font-size: 13px; margin: 0 0 10px; } .atlas-fallback h2 { font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.12em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b7a90; margin: 24px 0 10px; border-top: 1px dashed #6b7a90; padding-top: 14px; } .atlas-fallback h3.tier-head { font-size: 12.5px; letter-spacing: 0.12em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #15243a; margin: 22px 0 6px; padding-bottom: 4px; border-bottom: 1px solid #15243a; font-weight: 700; } .atlas-fallback h3.tier-head .count { color: #6b7a90; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.06em; } .atlas-fallback ol.roster { list-style: none; padding: 0; margin: 0; border-top: 1px solid #15243a; } .atlas-fallback ol.roster li { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 38px 1fr auto; gap: 12px; align-items: baseline; padding: 10px 4px; border-bottom: 1px dotted #15243a40; } .atlas-fallback .rank { font-size: 11px; color: #6b7a90; letter-spacing: 0.05em; } .atlas-fallback .name { font-size: 13px; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.02em; display: block; } .atlas-fallback .name a { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; } .atlas-fallback .name a:hover { border-bottom-color: #15243a; } .atlas-fallback .meta { font-size: 10.5px; color: #6b7a90; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.06em; display: block; margin-top: 2px; } .atlas-fallback .v { font-size: 13px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap; color: #15243a; } .atlas-fallback .crumbs { font-size: 11px; color: #6b7a90; margin-top: 28px; letter-spacing: 0.04em; text-transform: uppercase; } .atlas-fallback .crumbs a { color: #15243a; }

Best Public Elementary Schools in Bellingham

Whatcom County's public-elementary landscape is shaped by two contrasting forces: Bellingham School District's strong neighborhood-school tradition north and east of downtown, and the Lynden / Nooksack rural-district pattern that defines much of the county outside city limits. Unlike the Eastside or south-county Snohomish, Whatcom does not have any single elementary scoring north of 90 percent proficient in both math and ELA on the state's Smarter Balanced assessments; the top of this list clusters in the 50-to-70-percent range, reflecting both the county's mixed demographics and the smaller scale of its higher-performing schools.

Columbia Elementary, a small neighborhood school of about 180 students in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood north of downtown, leads the county this year at 58 percent proficient in math and 74 percent in ELA, the highest ELA rate in Whatcom County. Lowell Elementary in the Lettered Streets neighborhood is second and Silver Beach Elementary, on Bellingham's north shore near Lake Whatcom and last year's leader, is third, both at 61 percent averaged across the two subjects. Wade King, Sunnyland, Geneva, and Happy Valley round out the Bellingham SD presence in the top ten, a concentration that reflects the district's overall consistency more than any single magnet building.

Three non-Bellingham SD schools crack the top ten. Isom Elementary in Lynden School District, fourth, serves a community whose Dutch Reformed heritage continues to support a strong local-school culture, and Nooksack Elementary and Everson Elementary in the small Nooksack Valley School District serve Everson and the surrounding rural Whatcom communities. Both districts have notably smaller English-learner populations than Bellingham SD, which influences proficiency scores; proficiency-rate comparisons can reflect demographic composition as much as instructional quality.

A structural pattern in this list: the top Bellingham schools cluster in the neighborhoods north and east of downtown and around Lake Whatcom, broadly the same areas with the highest median household incomes in the city. Schools serving the Birchwood / Roosevelt area, which have higher poverty rates and larger English-learner populations, sit further down the list despite serving substantial enrollment.

Ranked schools

001COLUMBIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM66%
002LOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM61%
003SILVER BEACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM61%
004ISOM ELEMENTARY SCHOOLLYNDEN SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM58%
005WADE KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM58%
006NOOKSACK ELEMENTARYNOOKSACK VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM56%
007SUNNYLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM54%
008GENEVA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM53%
009EVERSON ELEMENTARYNOOKSACK VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM50%
010HAPPY VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM50%
011PARKVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM49%
012FISHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLLYNDEN SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM48%
013CENTRAL ELEMENTARYFERNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM48%
014HARMONY ELEMENTARYMOUNT BAKER SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM46%
015NORTHERN HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM45%
016IRENE REITHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMERIDIAN SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM44%
017SKYLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLFERNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM42%
018CUSTER ELEMFERNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM41%
019ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM37%
020CARL COZIER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM37%
021CASCADIA ELEMENTARYFERNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM33%
022BIRCHWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM27%
023EAGLERIDGE ELEMENTARYFERNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM26%
024ALDERWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM22%
025CORDATA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT · WHATCOM19%

All rankings · Live map

In scope — / — schools · Data 2018-25

Lens

Find

School Level Type

— legend —

—med ——

No data / suppressed