Best Public Schools in Custer, WA

Custer, Washington, has one listed public school: Custer Elementary, serving approximately 392 students in kindergarten through fifth grade within the Ferndale School District. The school has a student-teacher ratio of 17.3 to 1, and 54.34% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–2025, providing important economic context for families evaluating the school and its resources.

The school’s strongest academic area is science. In 2025–2026, 64.81% of students were proficient in science, outperforming both the district, at 47.55%, and Washington, at 50.95%. Fifth-grade science was similarly strong, with 64.81% proficiency—about 10 percentage points above both comparison levels. Mathematics was also a relative strength overall: 43.89% of students were proficient, nearly matching the state rate of 43.11% and exceeding the district rate of 35.55%. Fourth-grade math was especially notable, with 54.10% proficiency, 16.97 percentage points above the district and 4.56 points above the state. However, results varied by grade, with third-grade math below both the district and state and fifth-grade math slightly below the state.

English Language Arts is the clearest area for improvement. Overall ELA proficiency was 38.89%, below the district’s 42.92% and the state’s 52.81%. Custer was below the state in every tested grade, with the largest gap in fourth grade, where proficiency was 32.79% compared with 50.43% statewide. Fifth-grade ELA improved to 48.15%, but remained below the state. Year over year, science rose sharply by 16.48 percentage points, math was essentially stable, and ELA declined slightly. The school’s ranking improved from the 39th to the 43rd percentile, though it remains below its 55th-percentile standing in 2023–2024.