Best Public Elementary Schools in Yakima
Yakima County's elementary schools tell a story you cannot read from a single number. The county is one of the most agriculturally productive in the United States, anchored by orchard, hop, and vineyard work that pulls in a large Hispanic and Indigenous student population, and its schools serve roughly seventy percent students from low-income families — a fundamentally different demographic context from the King County suburbs that dominate statewide rankings. A 60 percent math-proficiency rate in this setting represents real instructional achievement, not just affluent-zip-code gravity.
The top of the list is dominated by the West Valley School District, which enrolls just under six thousand students on the western, more residential side of Yakima. Six of the top ten schools, Cottonwood, Apple Valley, Ahtanum Valley, Mountainview, Wide Hollow, and Summitview, feed the same district's high school, an unusually concentrated showing. Cottonwood Elementary leads the list at 69 percent proficient in math and 71 percent in ELA, with Apple Valley a point behind. Apple Valley has been recognized by the Washington School Recognition Program for English-language-learner growth, a meaningful designation in a region where ELL students often make up a quarter or more of enrollment. Ahtanum Valley, which led the list last year and draws from the older orchard-belt neighborhoods west of downtown Yakima, is third.
Beyond West Valley, the leaders include Moxee Elementary in the East Valley district, named for the Moxee hop-growing area, at fifth; Zillah Intermediate, in the small Lower Valley town better known for its fruit warehouses and Teapot Dome gas station, at sixth; and Naches Valley Elementary, which serves a long rural-mountain catchment running west toward Cliffdell, at seventh. East Valley Elementary is ninth. Tieton Elementary in the Highland district, geographically the most isolated of the county's stronger schools, sits just outside the top ten.
The shape of the data is worth dwelling on. The top school in Yakima County registers a math proficiency rate of about 69 percent that would not crack the top hundred in King County, but it is the gap between the top-ranked Yakima County school and the bottom of the county that matters: by middle school the leading schools' proficiency rates have already collapsed by twenty points, suggesting that the Yakima Valley's elementary leaders are working harder than their statewide peers to hold a line that erodes after fifth grade. Only the top two clear seventy percent in either subject, which makes the ordering on this list closer in feel than the raw numbers might suggest.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public elementary schools in Yakima County and orders them by a composite of Smarter Balanced math and ELA proficiency from OSPI's most recent published Report Card. Private and parochial schools are listed elsewhere. SBA results at this level are imperfect proxies for instructional quality and will track local poverty and English-learner share. Schools with fewer than thirty tested students are excluded for statistical stability. SAT, AP, and selective-college Polaris figures are unavailable at the elementary level and appear blank by design.
Ranked schools
- 001COTTONWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA70%
- 002APPLE VALLEY ELEMENTARYWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA68%
- 003AHTANUM VALLEY ELEMENTARYWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA60%
- 004MOUNTAINVIEW ELEMENTARYWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA54%
- 005MOXEE ELEMENTARYEAST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA53%
- 006ZILLAH INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLZILLAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA52%
- 007NACHES VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNACHES VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA50%
- 008WIDE HOLLOW ELEMENTARYWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA50%
- 009EAST VALLEY ELEMENTARYEAST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA47%
- 010SUMMITVIEW ELEMENTARYWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA47%
- 011TIETON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHIGHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA45%
- 012TERRACE HEIGHTS ELEMENTARYEAST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA) · YAKIMA42%
- 013SELAH INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLSELAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA37%
- 014GILBERT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA36%
- 015WHITNEY ELEMENTARYYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA35%
- 016NOB HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA34%
- 017RIDGEVIEW ELEMENTARYYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA33%
- 018ROBERTSON ELEMENTARYYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA31%
- 019SATUS ELEMENTARYWAPATO SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA31%
- 020ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA30%
- 021MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA28%
- 022BARGE-LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA25%
- 023GARFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA24%
- 024HOOVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA22%
- 025MCCLURE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLYAKIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · YAKIMA22%
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