Best Public Schools in Washington, KS

Washington, Kansas, has two schools serving 355 students across prekindergarten through grade 12: Washington Elementary (PK–6) and Washington County High School (grades 7–12). Because they serve different grade spans, their all-grades test results are not a like-for-like comparison of students in the same grades. The clearest area-wide finding is a sharp split: in 2025–26, the elementary school was above the state in all three subjects, while the high school was below it in all three.

Washington Elementary stands out for proficiency: its ELA, math and science rates were 71%, 67% and 43%, respectively, compared with state rates of 46%, 41% and 38%. That puts the school 25 points above the state in ELA, 26 in math and 5 in science. At the other end, Washington County High School recorded 32% in ELA, 24% in math and 31% in science—14, 17 and 7 points below the state. SchoolDigger’s 2025–26 rankings also place the elementary school higher: 77th of 657 Kansas schools, at the 88th percentile, versus the high school’s 256th of 340, at the 25th percentile.

Results have moved in different directions by school and subject. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, elementary proficiency rose 12 points in ELA and 13 in math, but fell 3 in science; high-school ELA rose 6 points, while math fell 5 and science fell 2. SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking rose for the elementary school from 63 to 74 to 88 over three years; the high school went from 41 to 16 to 25, a recent rebound that remains below its first listed year. The schools have nearly identical student-teacher ratios—10.3 and 10.2—and the high school’s free/reduced-lunch rate is 58%, compared with 52% at the elementary school; these are contextual differences, not explanations for results. The high school also reported a 96% graduation rate, 7 points above the state rate.