Summary:
Ocean Beach School District has one listed middle school, Hilltop Elementary School, serving grades 6–8 in Ilwaco, Washington. The school enrolls 188 students and has a 15.9-to-1 student–teacher ratio. Although it is named an elementary school, the available data identifies it as the district’s middle school. With only one school in the district, families cannot compare several local middle schools; instead, Hilltop’s results are best understood through its year-to-year progress and comparisons with district and state averages.
Hilltop’s strongest academic area is science. In 2025–26, 43.1% of students were proficient in science, nearly matching the district’s 44.5% and improving by 15.96 percentage points from the previous year. ELA proficiency was 31.79%, while math was considerably lower at 17.34%. Math is the clearest area needing attention, particularly in 7th grade, where only 14.58% of students were proficient. At each grade level, Hilltop’s math results were slightly higher than the district’s, but all were well below Washington averages. In ELA, Hilltop was slightly above district results in 6th and 7th grades and close to the district in 8th grade, though statewide gaps remained substantial.
The school serves a relatively high-needs community, with 62.77% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. This context is important for families considering academic results, but the available information does not explain the causes of performance differences. Hilltop’s statewide ranking improved from 455th of 534 schools to 424th of 514 in 2025–26, and its percentile rose from the 15th to the 18th percentile, although it retained a 1-star rating. Overall, parents may view science improvement as an encouraging sign while giving particular attention to math support, especially for 7th graders, and to continued progress in reading and writing.
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