George Washington Elementary School, Marion OH

Original Research by School Decision on George Washington Elementary School

George Washington Elementary is a small PreK-5 public school in downtown Marion with about four hundred students spread across seven grade levels. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial share identifying as multiracial or Hispanic. Demographic data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner status were not available.

State testing results from the most recent year show proficiency rates that sit below the midpoint among Marion County school districts. In English language arts, roughly four in ten students scored at proficient level or above. Math results were slightly lower. Science proficiency was in the low-to-mid range. The one older snapshot available for social studies, from fourth grade students, showed much stronger performance, though that data point is several years old and the state has since changed its testing structure. Only single-year data is available; historical trends are not yet available for comparison. All students tested participated in the assessments, which suggests consistent access to testing conditions.

The school sits at Pennsylvania Avenue in a location the district has described as walkable and accessible. Marion itself is in transition. The city has a manufacturing backbone, anchored by major employers like Whirlpool, Nucor Steel, and others, and is seeing modest home value growth alongside downtown revitalization efforts. A new streetscape project is planned for the downtown core, and the Lincoln Park Trail is being built out in phases. Housing costs are modest relative to state and national averages, and rent runs lower than mortgage costs, which can shape whether families are homeowners or renters in the area.

The Marion City district has made substantive recent moves. The district launched Lincoln Academy to serve at-risk students and improve retention. It invested in a K-12 literacy instructional program and new curriculum maps. It also adopted the Character Strong social-emotional learning curriculum district-wide and expanded mental health partnerships. These are durable shifts in how the district approaches instruction and student support. The district completed a cost-saving initiative that has freed up resources to redirect to classrooms and facilities. A parent considering George Washington should ask the school directly about where it sits in those initiatives, how literacy instruction is structured in the early grades, and what support looksystems look like for students below proficiency level.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grades 3-839%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grades 3-844%

School 44% · District 41% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Science

Grades 3-837%

School 37% · District 38% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 471%

School 71% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolMarion City, 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.