Berney Elementary School, Walla Walla WA

Original Research by School Decision on Berney Elementary School

Berney Elementary School is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the Walla Walla Public Schools district, located on Pleasant Street in the city of Walla Walla. It is one of several elementary schools in a district that also operates middle and high schools spread across town rather than on a single campus. The school’s enrollment is small for its grade band, and the student body is predominantly white, with a sizable Hispanic population and small shares of other racial and ethnic groups. More than two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a high level that places economic need at the center of the school’s context.

State testing results from the 2024–25 school year are available for grades three through five in English language arts and math, and for fifth grade in science. In third grade, roughly half of students met proficiency in ELA, a noticeably stronger result than in the other tested grades. In fourth and fifth grade ELA, proficiency rates were lower, sitting in the mid-thirty-percent range. Math results followed a similar pattern: third grade saw a share above the two-fifths mark, while fourth and fifth grade math hovered around thirty percent. Fifth grade science, tested separately, saw about half of students reaching proficiency.

When compared with other districts in Walla Walla County, Berney Elementary’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades placed it in the bottom quartile. The comparison set includes six other district-level entities within the county, and Berney’s index fell below the median for that group. Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate or chronic absenteeism data reported, and no multi-year trend data is available beyond this single year’s results, so it is not possible to say whether performance has been improving or declining.

The school’s broader community is Walla Walla, a city that functions as the county seat and a regional hub for southeastern Washington. The local economy blends agriculture—wheat, sweet onions, and a wine industry that has expanded substantially in recent decades—with institutional employers such as Whitman College, Walla Walla Community College, the Washington State Penitentiary, and Providence St. Mary Medical Center. Downtown Walla Walla has a compact, walkable core with restaurants and tasting rooms, while residential neighborhoods spread outward. The city’s population has been relatively stable, and recent growth has centered on wine tourism and infrastructure projects like the widening of U.S. Route 12 toward Pasco.

The district, Walla Walla Public Schools, approved a replacement Educational Programs and Operations Levy in 2024, which voters supported by a substantial margin. That levy funds programs not covered by state basic education allocations, including honors classes, band, and arts. It requires renewal every few years, with the next vote scheduled for 2028. Beyond this levy, no other district-level changes or strategic priorities are reported in the available data.

Berney Elementary is a school serving a high-poverty population in a mid-sized agricultural city that offers a mix of civic anchors, higher education, and tourism-related amenities. The academic results on state tests are mixed, with third grade reading as the strongest point and math across grades as a softer area. Families considering the school may want to follow up with the school or district about what academic supports are in place, especially for students who are not yet meeting proficiency benchmarks. The absence of information on special education services, English learner programs, discipline, or staffing means those are open questions a parent would need to ask directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 45% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 38% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 41% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 42% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 38% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 47% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 47% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolWalla Walla Public Schools, 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-income43%Higher-income65%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income58%31 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income54%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income70%43 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income37%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income50%30 pp gap