Washington Elementary, Santa Ana CA

Original Research by School Decision on Washington Elementary

Washington Elementary is a small school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Santa Ana, the urban core and county seat of Orange County. The school sits in a dense, working-class neighborhood with a heavily Latino student body and substantial economic need.

Academically, the school faces serious challenges. State testing data from the most recent year shows proficiency rates well below the midpoint of schools countywide. In English language arts across grades three through five, roughly between a quarter and a third of students score at or above grade level. In mathematics, the picture is considerably weaker, with proficiency rates ranging from the single digits in fifth grade to about a third in fourth grade. Fifth-grade science proficiency is in the single digits. Only one year of state testing data is available, so trend direction cannot be assessed.

The school's student body reflects Santa Ana's demographics: nearly all students are Hispanic, with only a handful of other backgrounds represented. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating concentrated economic hardship. Enrollment hovers around five hundred students, relatively small for an elementary school, with each grade level consisting of roughly eighty to one hundred students. The school is a regular public school, part of Santa Ana Unified, not a charter or magnet program.

Santa Ana as a city is undergoing active redevelopment and housing growth, with significant infrastructure investment and mixed-use projects reshaping neighborhoods. The downtown area is walkable and has genuine civic and commercial life centered on Fourth Street, but much of the surrounding residential area is car-dependent. Home values and rents in the zip code are substantial relative to household income, placing housing affordability under real strain for families. Government is the dominant employer because Santa Ana is the county seat, but the employment base also includes healthcare, education, logistics, and financial services.

At the district level, Santa Ana Unified passed a major school facilities bond in November 2024 funded by increased property taxes, committing to repair and modernization of aging schools over an extended period. The district is also navigating a curriculum transition: it was an early adopter of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement starting in K-12 in 2020, but in 2025 agreed to discontinue three contested high school ethnic studies courses and rebuild them with public input following a lawsuit over antisemitism allegations and open-meeting violations.

Washington Elementary's weak test results and concentrated economic need suggest this is a school where many students are not yet meeting grade-level standards and where English language learner status or other language-related factors may play a role, though specific data on English learner enrollment was not available. A parent considering this school may want to look into further detail with the school about how it addresses the achievement gaps evident in the testing data and what literacy and math interventions are in place. The facilities bond suggests district commitment to school improvements, though whether or when Washington Elementary would benefit from them is not clear from available data.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 26% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 25% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 22% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 25% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 31% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 34% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Science

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 18% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

This schoolSanta Ana Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.