Summary:
ZIP code 98624 has two schools serving grades 6–12: Ilwaco High School for grades 9–12 and Hilltop Elementary School, listed as a middle school, for grades 6–8, with 485 students combined in the Ocean Beach School District.
Ilwaco High School is the stronger-performing school in the area. It ranked in the 65th percentile statewide for 2025–26, compared with the 18th percentile for Hilltop Elementary School. Ilwaco’s greatest strength is English language arts, with 76.12% of students proficient, well above both district and state results. Science performance was also strong at 52.24%, slightly above the state rate. The school’s reported graduation rate was 91% for 2023–24, higher than the district and state figures provided. Ilwaco has also improved substantially, rising from the 24th to the 65th percentile over three years. Math remains a concern, however, with only 23.88% proficiency.
Hilltop Elementary School has a lower overall ranking, but its science results improved significantly, rising nearly 16 percentage points to 43.1% in 2025–26. It also has a lower student-teacher ratio than Ilwaco, 15.9 to 1 versus 19.8 to 1. Still, Hilltop’s ELA proficiency was 31.79% and math proficiency was 17.34%, making math a key area for improvement at both schools. The schools are part of the Ocean Beach School District, which ranked in the 27th percentile statewide. Families should view Ilwaco’s recent progress as encouraging while monitoring whether Hilltop can build on its science gains and improve literacy and math outcomes.
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