West View Elementary, Burlington WA

Original Research by School Decision on West View Elementary

West View Elementary, part of the Burlington-Edison School District, serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade in the city of Burlington, a community in Skagit County that calls itself the “Hub City” of the Skagit Valley. Burlington began as a logging camp, later shifted to dairy farming and agriculture, and saw extensive commercial development along Burlington Boulevard from the late 1980s through the 2000s, giving it a strong retail presence alongside its agricultural roots. The old downtown, centered on Fairhaven Avenue, has been revitalized and hosts community events, while a new city hall and library anchor civic life. The population is growing quickly.

West View Elementary is a regular public school with an enrollment that is small for a K-6 building. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of white students; other racial and ethnic groups each make up a very small portion of the population. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker that a high proportion of families have lower household incomes. The school’s zip code shows housing costs that are moderately below the statewide benchmark, with rents rising faster than the national trend and home values showing small annual gains.

On the 2024-25 state assessments, West View’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades landed in the bottom quarter of districts in Skagit County. This is the school’s first year of data in the trend series, so no direction of change is yet established. Math proficiency rates varied by grade, with one grade reporting a notably lower share of students meeting the standard and the others also sitting well below half. In English language arts, proficiency rates were similarly low across grades, with one grade’s rate especially low. On the elementary science assessment, a little over a third of fifth graders met the proficiency bar. These are broadly soft numbers, and a parent may want to ask the school about its instructional approach and what plans are in place to raise achievement.

No chronic absenteeism data or discipline data were available. The district brief turned up no recent school board actions, new levies, or curriculum changes that were reported widely enough to confirm. Special education and English learner counts were also missing from the data provided, so the share of students receiving those supports is unknown.

For a family weighing this school, the most straightforward read is that West View serves a high-poverty student population and that its test results reflect that challenge. The school does not have a track record yet in the data set, so there is no multi-year pattern to judge improvement or decline. Burlington itself offers a mix of small-city amenities and agricultural character, with a growing population and a housing market that is expensive relative to national medians but cheaper than much of Washington. Parents who want to understand how the school supports students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards, or how it engages families in a community with many non-native English speakers, would need to reach out directly for those specifics. The school’s size and grade span make it a typical neighborhood elementary, and its location in the Burlington-Edison district means students will move on to the district’s middle and high schools after sixth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 40% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 31% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 21% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 31% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 38%

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

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 28% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 37% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 36% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 37% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

This schoolBurlington-Edison School District, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income44%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income26%13 pp gap