Summary:
The Highland School District has two listed elementary schools serving 451 students from prekindergarten through fifth grade. Marcus Whitman-Cowiche Elementary serves PK–2 and enrolls 249 students, while Tieton Elementary School serves grades 3–5 and enrolls 202 students. Since the schools serve different grade levels, they are not direct academic comparisons. The district ranks 174th out of 238 Washington districts and has a one-star rating.
Marcus Whitman-Cowiche Elementary is larger and reports higher spending per student: $19,508 compared with $18,167 at Tieton Elementary School. Both schools have the same student-teacher ratio of 16.9 to 1. Tieton serves a larger share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, 75.74% compared with 63.86% at Marcus Whitman-Cowiche. No test scores were provided for Marcus Whitman-Cowiche, which is understandable because it serves younger students and does not include the main tested grades in the supplied data.
Tieton Elementary School shows the clearest academic strengths in the available information. In 2025–2026, proficiency was 46.43% in English language arts, 44.90% in math, and 36.21% in science. Tieton exceeded the district in all three subjects, especially math, where it was 16.30 percentage points higher and slightly above the state average. Its ranking trend is also encouraging, rising from the 27th to the 43rd percentile over three years. Science is the main area needing attention, particularly fifth grade, while ELA results were stronger in third grade than in later grades. Overall, Tieton appears to be improving, but the district’s elementary academic picture remains incomplete without results for the younger-grade school.
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