Summary:
ZIP code 98629 has one elementary school, La Center Elementary, serving approximately 789 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade within the La Center School District.
La Center Elementary is a four-star school ranked in the 76th percentile among Washington elementary schools. Its strongest academic area is science, where 70.59% of students were proficient in 2025–2026, compared with 53.69% in the district and 50.95% statewide. Math is also a relative strength overall: 45.58% of students were proficient, exceeding the district by about five percentage points and the state by about two and a half points. English language arts was somewhat weaker, with 50% proficiency—below both the district and state averages.
Performance varies noticeably by grade. Fifth grade was the strongest tested grade, with 58.39% proficiency in ELA and 52.59% in math, both above state averages. Third- and fourth-grade math were the clearest improvement areas, with proficiency below statewide results by about 10 and 8 percentage points, respectively. The latest trends were mixed: science proficiency increased by 4.49 points, while ELA declined by 2.70 points and math decreased slightly. Still, the school’s statewide ranking improved substantially, rising from the 49th percentile and two stars in 2023–2024 to the 76th percentile and four stars in 2025–2026. Families may also note the school’s 16.7-to-1 student-teacher ratio, 32.83% free- or reduced-price lunch eligibility, and 2023–2024 per-student spending of $16,533.
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