Mossyrock Elementary School, Mossyrock WA

Original Research by School Decision on Mossyrock Elementary School

Mossyrock Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade in the small, rural city of Mossyrock, Washington, as part of the Mossyrock School District. The school sits on Williams Street among school buildings dating from the 1930s, integrated into the compact town center rather than set apart on a remote campus. The community itself is a quiet place of roughly a square mile, nestled between two lakes and anchored by blueberry farming, tourism, and the district’s own schools. Families here live in a mix of apartments, single-family homes, and townhouses, with housing values below the state average by a clear margin, though the national context shows a modest year-over-year increase locally.

The student body at Mossyrock Elementary is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic minority and very small shares of other racial and ethnic groups. Most students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing it in a category where economic need is widespread. The school is a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet. Data on special education identification and English learner status were not available, so a parent seeking that information would need to ask the school directly.

State assessment results from the most recent testing year show that across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Lewis County. In English language arts, performance by grade level varied noticeably. In third grade, fewer than half of students scored proficient, while in fourth and fifth grades the share was lower still. Sixth graders, however, reached a higher rate, with a clear majority meeting the proficiency bar. In math, the pattern was more consistent and lower: roughly a third of third and fourth graders scored proficient, dipping to about a fifth of fifth graders, and rising to about a third of sixth graders. In science, tested only in fifth grade, a bit more than a third of students were proficient. Only one year of testing data was available, so there is no trend to examine.

The school does not serve high school grades, so no graduation rate applies, and no chronic absenteeism data was available in the comparison set. The comparison that exists, positioned relative to districts in Lewis County, covers proficiency only. A parent may want to explore with the school how it supports students who are below the proficiency mark and what academic interventions are in place.

Mossyrock’s setting is rural and tight-knit. The town’s major employers include blueberry farms, the school district itself, and Tacoma Power’s Mossyrock Dam. The annual Blueberry Festival draws the community together, and the nearby lakes provide recreation. Growth has been slow and steady, with no large-scale housing developments identified in recent public accounts. For a family that values a small-town school where the economic context is clearly one of modest means, and where academic performance is an area the school is still working to strengthen, Mossyrock Elementary offers a straightforward picture: a school deeply embedded in its community, with a student population that faces real economic challenges and test scores that reflect room for growth.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 31%

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

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33%

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

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 47%

even with state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 29%

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 30%

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

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Science

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 36%

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

This schoolMossyrock 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 3Lower-income38%Higher-income71%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income29%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income43%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income32%Higher-income46%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income36%7 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income29%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income50%27 pp gap