The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in Science. The lowest is 10% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Saddle Mountain Elementary
Saddle Mountain Elementary, a regular public school in Mattawa, Washington, serves kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Wahluke School District. The school’s enrollment is small for a K-5 campus, and the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, reflecting the composition of the surrounding town. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Mattawa is a compact farming town in Grant County, situated on the east side of the Columbia River, surrounded by orchards and irrigated farmland. The town has a very young population and a predominantly Latino community with a low share of English-proficient speakers. Its economy has been tied to agriculture, dam construction, and irrigation projects. The town is small and dense, with a grid street layout, and its civic anchors include City Hall, the Port of Mattawa, and a notable straw bale library. Population growth has been volatile over recent decades, and the area is described as largely rural.
On state assessments, Saddle Mountain Elementary’s performance is low. In third-grade math, a modest share of students met the proficiency standard. In third-grade English language arts, the share was similarly low. On the fifth-grade science assessment, about a quarter of students reached the proficient level. The multi-year trend data shows only a single year of results for math and ELA, so no trajectory is available. The school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Grant County. A parent may want to ask the school directly about academic support and intervention strategies.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism was not available, nor was information on discipline, staffing ratios, or course access. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as bond measures, levy outcomes, or curriculum shifts that cleared the bar for inclusion, so the district context appears stable on paper.
For a family considering Saddle Mountain Elementary, the picture is straightforward. The school serves a small, high-poverty community. Academic performance on state measures is low compared with other Grant County schools. The student body is nearly all Hispanic, and the community itself is Spanish-dominant and agriculture-based. The Lack of trend data means it is hard to see whether the school is improving. A parent evaluating this school would want to visit and ask about instruction, intervention, and how the school supports students whose home language is not English. The setting is rural and small-town, with a compact downtown and schools likely within walking distance for residents. The housing market in Mattawa shows a median home value modestly below the Washington state benchmark, and the town has recently changed its municipal status to access more funding, which could signal future development.
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