Thousand Oaks Elementary vs Washington Elementary

Thousand Oaks Elementary and Washington Elementary sit 1.9 miles apart in Berkeley, California, and both earn elite overall ratings — but Washington Elementary holds a clear edge in state rank, coming in at #139 of 9,533 California elementary schools compared to Thousand Oaks Elementary's #195. That 56-position gap in state rank is meaningful at the top of the distribution, where schools are tightly clustered. Overall ratings stand at 9.2/10 for Washington Elementary and 9.1/10 for Thousand Oaks Elementary — a narrow difference that masks sharper contrasts underneath.

On academics, Washington Elementary scores 9.0/10 versus Thousand Oaks Elementary's 8.9/10 — a modest but real delta in proficiency. The sharpest reversal comes in growth: Thousand Oaks Elementary earns a perfect 10.0/10 growth score against Washington Elementary's 9.2/10. That 0.8-point gap means students at Thousand Oaks Elementary are outpacing their academic growth projections at an exceptional rate — a signal that the school is adding value beyond what its intake demographics would predict.

Washington Elementary enrolls 389 students versus Thousand Oaks Elementary's 363, and the student-teacher ratio differs more substantially: 20.5:1 at Washington Elementary compared to 24.2:1 at Thousand Oaks Elementary. That ratio gap of nearly four students per teacher translates to meaningfully more individual attention per child at Washington Elementary. On economic diversity, Thousand Oaks Elementary serves 31% of students on free or reduced lunch, compared to 26% at Washington Elementary.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families with kindergarteners through fifth-graders are equally served on grade span. The decision narrows to what families weight most: Washington Elementary's stronger state rank, higher academic score, and lower student-teacher ratio, or Thousand Oaks Elementary's standout growth score, which suggests a teaching environment that consistently accelerates student progress relative to expectations.