Westmorland Elementary, Westmorland CA

Original Research by School Decision on Westmorland Elementary

Westmorland Elementary is a K-8 public school serving a small agricultural community in the Imperial Valley. The school enrolls a small population of students, almost all of whom come from Spanish-speaking households with very low family income. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with almost no racial or ethnic diversity.

The school sits at the center of Westmorland, a compact town along State Highway 86, tied economically to year-round Imperial Valley farming. The region is also the focus of a large development push called Lithium Valley, centered on geothermal and lithium-extraction potential around the Salton Sea, though as of early 2026 that growth had not yet materialized into jobs or tax revenue locally. The town's population has been essentially flat for decades. Most residents rent rather than own homes. Westmorland itself has few large employers; beyond agriculture, geothermal plants are among the few sizable operations in the wider valley.

Academic performance at Westmorland Elementary is well below state proficiency standards across tested subjects and grade levels. In mathematics, overall proficiency is in the single digits across grades three through eight, with a school-wide average around thirteen percent. Grade five mathematics is particularly low. English language arts shows somewhat higher results, ranging from six percent in grade four to forty-five percent in grade eight, with a school average around twenty-seven percent. Science proficiency in grade five is six percent; grade eight science reaches nineteen percent. The one available historical measure, an eighth-grade social studies test from 2013, showed proficiency around fifty-five percent, but no current social studies assessment data are reported. Relative to other districts in Imperial County, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile.

The school serves only tested grades three through eight for state assessment purposes. Kindergarten through second grade are not assessed under California's testing system. No special education enrollment data, English learner population data, chronic absenteeism rates, or graduation rates are available in the provided records. These gaps may reflect the school's grade band and the nature of state reporting rather than missing information.

In June 2022, the school district passed two local bond measures funded by property taxes, authorizing money for a new gymnasium and upgrades to heating, ventilation, and electrical systems at Westmorland Elementary. That construction will add a major community facility and impose a lasting property-tax obligation on homeowners in the district.

The district is small and serves a single K-8 school. Data on teacher staffing, course breadth, or other program details beyond the grade structure were not available. For a family considering this school, the core facts are low academic attainment across all tested domains, a student population that is nearly entirely low-income and Hispanic, and a community with limited economic opportunity beyond agriculture. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school on the causes and nature of the low proficiency rates, the reading and math support systems in place, and the school's long-term improvement trajectory.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 410%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 53%

School 3% · District 3%

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

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 7%

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

This schoolWestmorland Union Elementary, 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.