Summary
Washington Elementary is a Berkeley, California, public school serving 401 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. In 2025–26, its proficiency rates were well above California’s: 69% in English language arts (ELA), 68% in math, and 57% in science. The most important comparison for families is that, despite those strong state results, Washington scored below the average of nearby Berkeley Unified K–5 schools in all three subjects and ranked in the lower half of that local group in each one.
Math is Washington’s strongest subject relative to its district: its 68% proficiency rate was about 1 percentage point above the Berkeley Unified average, while ELA at 69% was 2 points below and science at 57% was 1 point below. Compared with the seven nearby K–5 schools, Washington’s averages were 72% in ELA, 71% in math, and 64% in science; it ranked sixth, fifth, and seventh of the eight schools, respectively. It was nevertheless about 20, 29, and 21 points above state rates in those subjects. Some grade-level results are weaker than the all-grade picture suggests: third-grade ELA was 60%, 9 points below the district’s rate, and fifth-grade math was 60%, 8 points below. Chronic absenteeism is another local concern: 18% of students were chronically absent, higher than every nearby peer school and the district’s 13%, though just below the state’s 18%.
Scores remain higher than in 2022–23 overall, rising about 3 points in ELA, 2 in math, and 10 in science, but all three fell from their 2024–25 highs—by about 3, 4, and 7 points, respectively. SchoolDigger rated Washington 4 stars and placed it at the 88th statewide percentile in 2025–26, down from the 91st percentile the year before. One subgroup result stands out: SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile for Multi-racial Students was 56 in 2024–25, compared with 91 for the school overall, and had fallen 12 points from the prior year. Context includes a student–teacher ratio of 24.6 in 2024–25, higher than those reported by nearby Berkeley K–5 schools, and 33% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–25; these are observations, not explanations of the results.
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