The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in Math. The lowest is 26% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on George Westergard Elementary
George Westergard Elementary sits on Ambassador Drive in Reno's western reaches, part of the Washoe County School District. It is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, drawing from a neighborhood where home values run well above both state and national benchmarks. The housing market here carries a price-to-income ratio that sits high relative to national norms, meaning families buying into this area face a steeper affordability picture than most. Rents are more moderate relative to local incomes, though still reflective of Reno's broader cost pressures.
The school's academic results tell a story of solid performance in core literacy and numeracy, with a clear soft spot in science. On Nevada's SBAC assessments for the current school year, a clear majority of Westergard students reached proficiency in both math and English language arts, with the two subjects posting matching rates. Participation is strong across all tested subjects. Science proficiency, though, lands well below the math and reading results, with roughly a quarter of tested students reaching the proficient bar. A parent evaluating this school may want to look into how science instruction is structured and supported, since the gap between science and the other two subjects is wide enough to warrant a closer question.
The data did not include multi-year trend results, so it is not possible to say whether these proficiency levels represent improvement, decline, or stability over time. Average scale scores were also not available.
Enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, with a fairly even distribution across grade levels from kindergarten through fifth, plus a small pre-kindergarten program. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller groups identifying as Asian, two or more races, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals is low relative to what many public elementary schools see, which aligns with the area's higher home values and household incomes. Information on English learner rates and special education enrollment was not available in the data provided.
Reno itself is a city in the midst of sustained transformation. Once known primarily for casino tourism and its historic role as a divorce destination, the broader metro has drawn large-scale investment from major technology and logistics companies, including Tesla, Amazon, Panasonic, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. The University of Nevada, Reno adds an academic and cultural anchor. Downtown has a walkable core along Virginia Street and the Truckee River, with casino resorts, restaurants, and annual events like Hot August Nights and the Great Reno Balloon Races. Outside that core, Reno sprawls, and getting around is largely car-dependent. The city's growth has been driven by Bay Area companies seeking lower costs and by the tech sector's regional expansion. Outdoor recreation is a defining feature of life here, with Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada within easy reach.
Specific information about Westergard's programs, staffing, discipline practices, attendance patterns, and Title I status was not available in the data provided. The district-level brief for Washoe County School District did not yield specific curriculum or policy changes to report. Without that detail, it is not possible to characterize the school's approach to gifted services, arts education, intervention supports, or extracurricular offerings. A family considering Westergard would benefit from asking the school directly about these areas.
What the available picture does show is a neighborhood elementary school with solid academic results in reading and math, a student population that reflects a relatively affluent slice of Reno's western suburbs, and a community undergoing rapid economic and demographic change. The science results stand out as the one academic area where performance drops off, and the missing program and staffing data leaves a parent to fill in those gaps through direct conversation with the school.
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