Bay View Elementary, Burlington WA

Original Research by School Decision on Bay View Elementary

Bay View Elementary serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school in the Burlington-Edison School District, located on the outskirts of Burlington in Skagit County. The school sits in a community that began as a logging camp and later shifted to dairy farming and agriculture before seeing extensive commercial development along Burlington Boulevard. Burlington bills itself as the “Hub City” of the Skagit Valley, and it has been growing rapidly. Its old downtown along Fairhaven Avenue has been revitalized and hosts community events, and the city has a visitor information center and a public library. The surrounding area remains heavily agricultural, though the local economy also leans on retail.

Bay View’s enrollment is moderate for a K‑8 school. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced‑price meals, giving a sense of the economic mix of the families it serves. The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of students who identify as Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source material, so an interested parent may want to ask the school directly about its special‑education and language‑support programs.

The school participates in Washington’s statewide assessments in math, English language arts, and science. Only a single year of test results (the 2024‑25 school year) is available in the data, so there is no trend to compare against. In a comparison of overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades relative to other districts in Skagit County, Bay View places above the midpoint. That means its composite performance is stronger than several of its neighboring district peers but not at the top of the county.

Looking more closely at individual grade levels and subjects reveals a varied picture. In English language arts, one grade posted a proficiency rate that was meaningfully higher than the others—above the majority of students meeting the bar—while several other grades showed rates that were lower, including a grade where only a small share of students met the standard. Math results followed a similar pattern: one grade reached a rate that was noticeably stronger, while others, particularly in the early elementary and the final middle‑school years, were lower. In science, the tested grades showed a moderate share of students proficient, with one grade performing better than the other.

Because Bay View only goes through eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and the data set did not include chronic absenteeism or discipline figures. The school’s course offerings and program details were also absent from the source material, so a family interested in enrichment, electives, or any special academic pathways should contact the school directly.

The housing market in the zip code area is expensive relative to national averages. Home values are well above the national typical, and rents have been rising. That context matters for any family considering a move to the area. The district has no publicly reported recent changes in levies, bonds, or curriculum shifts from the web research consulted, but that does not mean nothing is happening—just that no lasting parent‑relevant changes appeared in the available search results.

Overall, Bay View Elementary offers a full K‑8 continuum in a growing agricultural and commercial town. Its assessment results show real variation by grade and subject, with some bright spots and other grades where proficiency is lower than a parent might hope. For a family weighing this school, a conversation with the principal about how the school supports students in the grades where results are softer would be a reasonable next step.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 40% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 31% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 21% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 31% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 32% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 19% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 38% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 28% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 37% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 36% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 41% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 31%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 37% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 26% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above 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 4Lower-income29%Higher-income41%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income65%Higher-income53%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income50%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income42%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income53%32 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income54%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income12%Higher-income29%18 pp gap