The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Westgate Elementary School
Westgate Elementary School is a regular public school in Kennewick, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits in the most populous city of Washington’s Tri-Cities area, a region that has seen steady population growth and economic diversification. Kennewick itself has a mix of manufacturing, food processing, retail, and service jobs, and hosts offices for employers like Amazon and Lamb Weston. The city stretches from the Columbia River south toward the Horse Heaven Hills, with residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and civic anchors such as the Three Rivers Convention Center, Toyota Center, and Southridge Sports and Events Complex. The broader Tri-Cities area is often described as the fastest-growing part of the state, and the local school district—Kennewick School District—uses a bond-and-levy system that relies on voter approval to fund new buildings and major capital projects, with a facility study committee that makes recommendations based on enrollment projections and funding capacity.
Westgate Elementary enrolls a moderate-sized student body for its grade band. A large majority of students come from households with low income, as reflected in the share qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. The student population is diverse: the largest group is Hispanic, followed by White and then Asian, with smaller numbers of students who are Black, multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
On the state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, Westgate’s results were mixed across subjects and grade levels, with some notable variation. In third grade, just over a quarter of students met the bar in both math and English language arts. Fourth grade showed a stronger picture, with about half proficient in ELA and somewhat more than half proficient in math. Fifth grade, which also takes a science test, saw about half of students proficient in ELA, more than a quarter in math, and about a third in science. This pattern—a dip at third grade, a rise at fourth, and a fall again at fifth—suggests the school may have uneven academic strength across grade levels, though a single year’s snapshot cannot say whether this is a lasting trend. Only one year of assessment data was available, so there is no way to see improvement or decline over time.
When compared with other school districts in Benton County, Westgate’s overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades placed it above the midpoint among the six districts in the county. That is a solid relative position, though it reflects the school’s overall average rather than its grade-by-grade variance. There is no state testing data for pre-kindergarten through second grade because those grades are not tested, so the profile is drawn entirely from grades three through five.
No information was available on programs such as gifted education, arts, or specialized offerings. Discipline data, chronic absenteeism rates, and staffing details were also absent from the available records. A parent considering Westgate would likely want to visit the school, talk to teachers, and learn about academic interventions, enrichment, and how the school supports its high-poverty student body. The housing context in Kennewick’s ZIP code shows home values roughly in line with national norms but below the Washington state average, and rents have been rising. The district’s bond and levy structure means that local funding decisions can affect school facilities and programs over time.
Westgate Elementary is a neighborhood school in a growing city, serving a student population that is largely low-income and diverse. Its state test results show real strengths at fourth grade but weaker performance at third and fifth, and overall proficiency that sits a bit above the midpoint among Benton County districts. A family looking for a school with a strong community feel and a staff that works with a high-needs population may find a good fit here, but they should dig into the specific support systems and program offerings that are not captured in the available data.
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