Best Public Schools in Zip Code 98541

ZIP code 98541 has six schools serving about 1,857 students across elementary, middle, high-school, alternative, and virtual programs in the Elma School District and Mary M Knight School District. The area offers a mix of traditional and specialized options, but academic performance varies substantially by school and subject. Among the regular Elma schools, Elma Elementary School has the strongest overall academic profile, with 42.04% of students proficient in math and 48.94% in science. Its math result is notably higher than those at the local middle and high schools. Elma Middle School has the highest current ranking among the regular Elma schools and performs reasonably well in ELA, especially in eighth grade.

Elma High School stands out for completion outcomes rather than test performance: its 91.4% graduation rate and 2.5% dropout rate are stronger than the state comparison figures. However, only 15.89% of students met the math standard, and ELA proficiency fell sharply from the prior year. Math is the main academic concern across the area, declining from 34.34% in sixth grade to 22.43% in eighth grade at Elma Middle and reaching its lowest level at Elma High. Parents comparing the traditional schools may therefore find the strongest elementary math foundation at Elma Elementary, improving middle-school ELA, and strong high-school completion paired with a significant need for math support.

Mary M. Knight School has the lowest reported current proficiency results, with 28.57% in ELA, 21.85% in math, and 32.73% in science, although it serves a different population and belongs to a lower-ranked district. The alternative and virtual programs—East Grays Harbor Open Doors and Eagle Virtual Sky Academy—serve small, specialized student groups, so their results should not be compared directly with conventional schools. Open Doors reports a low graduation rate and high dropout rate, while Eagle Virtual’s available ELA result improved. Several results are suppressed, meaning the data are unknown rather than zero.