Best Public Elementary Schools in the Tri-Cities
The Tri-Cities, Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco, host three sizable public school districts plus the smaller West Richland-area schools that fall under Richland SD. The metropolitan area's elementary scores cluster in a narrower band than most Washington metros: the top five elementaries all sit between 68 and 70 percent proficient averaged across math and ELA, and no single school stands clearly apart from the pack.
Orchard Elementary in Richland School District leads the list at 70 percent in both subjects, with Amon Creek Elementary (Kennewick School District, despite its Richland location, a quirk of district boundary lines along Steptoe Street) a point behind. Cottonwood and Ridge View, both Kennewick, and Desert Sky in West Richland follow within two points of the leader. Richland SD's strong showing, six of the top ten, reflects the district's positioning along the Hanford / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory professional corridor, where median household incomes and parent-education levels are among the highest in eastern Washington. Kennewick SD places three schools in the top ten (Amon Creek, Cottonwood, Ridge View), and Pasco SD places one (Ruth Livingston, sixth).
Desert Sky and William Wiley in West Richland reflect that community's continued residential growth — both schools serve neighborhoods that have expanded substantially since 2010 as Tri-Cities housing pressure pushes families further from the urban core. Lewis & Clark in Richland is one of the older elementaries in the metro and serves the central-Richland neighborhoods near the Columbia River.
The Pasco School District, which serves the largest enrollment in the metro and a majority-Hispanic student body with a substantial English-learner population, has only one elementary in the top ten despite running thirteen elementary schools. The score gap between the leading Pasco school (Ruth Livingston) and the leading Richland school (Orchard) is small in absolute terms — under five percentage points — but the district-wide proficiency gap between the three districts is meaningful and reflects both demographic differences and the structural challenges of educating large populations of newcomer students whose tested proficiency improves substantially with time-in-program but is captured at lower rates on Smarter Balanced in any single year.
Ranked schools
- 001ORCHARD ELEMENTARYRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON70%
- 002AMON CREEK ELEMENTARYKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON69%
- 003COTTONWOOD ELEMENTARYKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON68%
- 004RIDGE VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON68%
- 005DESERT SKY ELEMENTARYRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON68%
- 006RUTH LIVINGSTON ELEMENTARYPASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT · FRANKLIN64%
- 007BADGER MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARYRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON61%
- 008WILLIAM WILEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON60%
- 009LEWIS & CLARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON58%
- 010WHITE BLUFFS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON58%
- 011LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON56%
- 012SAGE CREST ELEMENTARYKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON55%
- 013MARCUS WHITMAN ELEMENTARYRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON52%
- 014JEFFERSON ELEMENTARYRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON52%
- 015HAWTHORNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON50%
- 016VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON48%
- 017TAPTEAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON48%
- 018SOUTHGATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON47%
- 019COLUMBIA RIVER ELEMENTARYPASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT · FRANKLIN45%
- 020JAMES MCGEE ELEMENTARYPASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT · FRANKLIN43%
- 021WESTGATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON43%
- 022ROSALIND FRANKLIN STEM ELEMENTARYPASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT · FRANKLIN43%
- 023MAYA ANGELOU ELEMENTARYPASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT · FRANKLIN42%
- 024SUNSET VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON42%
- 025CANYON VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLKENNEWICK SCHOOL DISTRICT · BENTON41%
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