Naselle-Grays River Valley Junior Senior High Schools

Naselle-Grays River Valley Junior Senior High Schools is a small public school serving grades 6–12 in the rural coastal community of Naselle, Washington, with 189 students. The school belongs to the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District, which ranks 94th of 238 Washington districts, at the 61st percentile. The school itself ranked at the 77th percentile in 2024–25, a substantial improvement from the 61st percentile the year before. Its nearby comparisons include Ilwaco High School, Willapa Valley Middle-High, and South Bend High School.

The school’s academic profile is mixed but generally competitive for a small school. In 2025–26, 55.91% of students were proficient in English language arts, slightly above Washington’s 52.81% and higher than South Bend’s 47.54%, though below Willapa Valley’s 57.26% and Ilwaco’s 76.12%. Science was another strength: Naselle’s 55.56% proficiency exceeded the state’s 50.95% and surpassed all three nearby schools. Mathematics is the clearest challenge. Only 26.60% of students were proficient, compared with 43.11% statewide. Naselle nevertheless performed somewhat better than Willapa Valley and Ilwaco, while remaining slightly below South Bend. Math results have stayed low for several years, particularly in grades 6–8, suggesting that strengthening foundational skills in the middle grades should be a major priority. Eighth-grade ELA, at 36.84%, is another area that warrants attention.

One of Naselle’s most notable strengths is its effectiveness with students from low-income backgrounds: the school ranked at the 96th percentile statewide for this subgroup in 2024–25. About 65.61% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, a higher share than at Ilwaco and Willapa Valley. The school also reported relatively strong recent science improvement and an ELA performance generally at or above the state average. However, families should note that current school-specific graduation and dropout rates are not available; the available 2020–21 graduation rate was 83.3%, close to the state’s 82.5%. Because the school is small, annual percentages and rankings can shift noticeably with changes in individual grade cohorts.