Best Public Schools in Colbert, WA

Colbert, Washington, has three public schools serving grades K–8: Midway Elementary and Colbert Elementary School for grades K–5, plus Mountainside Middle School for grades 6–8. Together, they enroll about 1,606 students and are part of the highly rated Mead School District, which ranks in the 79th percentile among Washington districts.

The two elementary schools are the strongest part of Colbert’s school system and perform very similarly. Midway ranks in the 84th percentile statewide, while Colbert Elementary ranks in the 83rd percentile. Both exceed district and state averages in English, math, and science. Midway has a slight edge overall, especially in math, with 68.78% of students proficient compared with 65.92% at Colbert Elementary. Colbert Elementary has the lowest student-teacher ratio, at 14 students per teacher, and the highest spending per student. At both schools, third- and fourth-grade math results are strong, but fifth-grade math falls to about 53%–54% proficiency, making it an important area for support.

Mountainside Middle School is considerably larger, serving 824 students, and its results are lower than those of the elementary schools. Its English proficiency rate is 55.47%, slightly above the state average, but math is 40.37% and science is 42.99%, below both district and state results. Math declines modestly from sixth through eighth grade, while English performance is steady across all three grades. For families, the main considerations are the strong elementary foundation, the shared fifth-grade math weakness, and the sizable performance gap in middle-school math and science. Science scores declined at all three schools, so that broader trend also deserves attention.