The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Westwood Elementary School
Westwood Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Dayton, a mid-sized Ohio city anchored by downtown revitalization, aviation heritage, and a significant healthcare sector centered on Premier Health and Kettering Health. The school sits within Dayton City Public Schools, which has recently overhauled early reading instruction around the science of reading, requiring all teachers in early elementary to complete training in that framework and adopting the state-approved Amplify curriculum.
Westwood enrolls a small school population across its grade span. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of White and multiracial students. The demographic composition reflects the neighborhood and city, where the majority of students are Black. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special populations were not available; a parent may want to ask the school directly about the composition of students receiving services.
On state testing, Westwood's results are substantially below the proficiency threshold. In the most recent school year, roughly a quarter of students tested met proficiency in English language arts, about a tenth in mathematics, and roughly an eighth in science. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts across Montgomery County. Because the district has made recent curriculum and pedagogical shifts in early literacy, a parent might ask the school how those changes are being implemented at Westwood specifically and what supports or interventions target students not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. The science-of-reading training across the district and the adoption of an approved curriculum represent a shift in approach that may affect outcomes over time, but current results show very limited proficiency.
Dayton itself is a place of mixed character. The downtown core and adjacent historic neighborhoods like South Park and the Oregon Historic District are walkable with vibrant street life, galleries, restaurants, and access to parks and libraries. Most of the wider city is car-dependent. Housing values in the immediate Dayton area are below state and national benchmarks, making homeownership or rental relatively affordable compared to broader benchmarks, though that reflects the economic conditions of the region overall. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remains the largest single employer in Ohio, with healthcare systems (Premier, Kettering, Dayton Children's) also anchoring employment.
A parent choosing Westwood would be selecting an elementary school in a neighborhood context within a city with downtown anchors and civic institutions, but with low current academic proficiency. The school offers the full pre-K-6 span in a regular public setting. Whether Westwood is the right fit depends on your neighborhood proximity, your child's academic needs and whether the school's intervention or support structures match them, and your assessment of the district's trajectory given its recent curriculum changes in reading. State testing data do not tell the full story of school experience, but they do signal that academic support and monitoring would be important conversations to have directly with the school.
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