Summary:
Aumsville is a small city of roughly 5,000 people in Marion County, Oregon, served by two public schools: Aumsville Elementary School, a K–5 school with 576 students, and Cascade Opportunity Center, a 9–12 school with just 83 students. Both belong to Cascade School District 5, which ranks 21st of 141 Oregon districts (85th percentile, 4 stars) — but that is a district-wide rating covering many schools, and neither Aumsville school individually performs at that level.
Aumsville Elementary is the larger, more traditional neighborhood school. It is the only one of the pair beating the state in a core subject: 35.8% proficient in math versus 32.9% statewide. Its chronic absenteeism of 27.5% is about six points better than the state's 33.5%. However, its English Language Arts proficiency of 39.9% trails the state (43.8%) and lags its own district (55.7%) considerably. Math also slides steadily by grade — from 42.1% in 3rd grade to 28.6% in 5th — and 4th-grade ELA dips to 34%. The school has held a 2-star rating at the 47th, 34th, and 47th percentiles across three years.
Cascade Opportunity Center tells a very different story. Its ELA proficiency of 53.8% is 10 points above the state, but math is 9.1% — nearly 24 points below state — and its graduation rate of 53.7% trails the district by 31 points. Chronic absenteeism is 55.8%, more than twice the district rate. With only 83 students, every percentage rests on a handful of students and can swing sharply year to year. Even so, it improved from the 13th to the 37th percentile and from 1 star to 2. Per-student spending differs dramatically between the two schools ($18,935 versus $4,706), though that likely reflects how costs are reported for a small specialized program.
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