The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in Math. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Washington Elementary School
Washington Elementary School sits on Ryan Avenue in Sault Ste. Marie, the oldest city in Michigan and the county seat of Chippewa County. It is part of Sault Ste. Marie Area Schools and was most recently configured as a kindergarten and first-grade building. A parent reviewing this school should know up front that publicly reported information indicates Washington Elementary closed at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, along with Lincoln Elementary, as part of a district-wide restructuring. Middle school students moved to the high school building, and the former middle school became an elementary school. So the account below describes a school that has just concluded its run in its last grade configuration.
The academic results in the data reflect an earlier period when the school served upper elementary grades and administered Michigan's M-STEP assessments. Because the school's current grade band covers only kindergarten and first grade, those grades are not state-tested, so no recent results apply to the configuration as it stood at closure. The historical results, drawn from the 2017-18 testing cycle for math and ELA and from 2016-17 for science, show a mixed picture. Math proficiency was strongest in third grade, with a solid majority of tested students scoring proficient or above, and tapered somewhat in fourth and fifth grades. ELA followed a different pattern, with roughly half of students proficient in the middle grades and a stronger showing in fifth grade. Science results from the prior year were quite low, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency, and social studies results in fifth grade were also weak. A parent may want to look into how the district addressed these subject-area gaps in its later years, since the school is no longer operating in this configuration.
Against the comparison set of districts in Chippewa County, Washington's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile, which suggests that even with the soft spots in science and social studies, the school's tested performance compared favorably with much of the county during that period. No graduation rate or chronic absenteeism data applies, the former because the school does not serve high school grades and the latter because it was not reported.
The student body was small, as one would expect for a two-grade primary building. A substantial share of students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. The racial and ethnic composition stood out for this part of Michigan: white students formed a slight majority, and a large minority identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, reflecting the school's proximity to the Bay Mills Indian Community and the broader Anishinaabe presence in the eastern Upper Peninsula. Smaller numbers of students identified as Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available. No Title I status, staffing figures, discipline data, attendance data, or course-access information was provided, and the locale classification was not specified.
The surrounding community shapes what a family experiences here. Sault Ste. Marie is a small city whose identity is tied to the St. Marys River, the Soo Locks, and cross-border traffic to Ontario via the International Bridge. Lake Superior State University sits on the former Fort Brady site, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the locks, is a major employer. Tourism and outdoor recreation are consistent threads in daily life. The downtown core occupies a compact island between the power canal and the river, giving the commercial center a traditional grid feel, while residential neighborhoods extend outward. The city is the northern terminus of Interstate 75, connecting it southward to the Mackinac Bridge.
Housing in the 49783 zip code is affordable by both state and national standards. Home values sit well below the Michigan benchmark and farther below the national one, and the price-to-income ratio is modest. No rental data was available, so a family relying on rentals would need to look elsewhere for current market conditions. The broader economic context includes a stable national unemployment picture and mortgage rates that have been hovering in the mid-six percent range, which affects what local buyers can stretch toward.
For a family that had children at Washington, the transition to the reconfigured district matters more than any historical test score. The school's legacy includes a relatively diverse enrollment for the Upper Peninsula, affordable housing in the neighborhood, and a community defined by its waterfront, university, and cross-border character. What happens next for these students depends on how the district's restructuring settles into place.
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