Best Public Schools in Aurora, OR

Aurora, Oregon is served by just four public schools, all of them part of a single district — North Marion School District 15 — which together form a complete PK–12 feeder pattern on Grim Rd NE and enroll 1,604 students: North Marion High School (grades 9–12, 564 students), North Marion Middle School (6–8, 410), North Marion Intermediate School (3–5, 345), and North Marion Primary School (PK–2, 285). There are no alternative schools in the city. North Marion School District 15 ranks 133rd of 141 rated Oregon districts — the 6th percentile — with a 0-star district rating, and no school in Aurora matches the state average in any subject.

Compared with each other, North Marion Intermediate School is the relative bright spot: it posts the district's highest math proficiency (21.3%) and science proficiency (19.3%), is the only school above district in all three subjects, and has the smallest gaps to state. North Marion High School is the weakest on nearly every measure — math proficiency of 6.8%, science at 14.2%, a 73.9% graduation rate against the state's 83.0%, the highest chronic absenteeism (37.0%), and a rank slide from the 19th to the 9th percentile. North Marion Middle School stands out for a single spike: 35th percentile and 2 stars in 2024-25, the only 2-star year in this data, before falling back to the 13th percentile. North Marion Primary School is the most resource-intensive — $22,918 per student, a 13.5 student-teacher ratio, the lowest absenteeism (30.1%), and the highest economic need (91.93% free/reduced lunch).

The overarching pattern is that math is the systemic weak point and it worsens as students move up: 21.3% at the Intermediate School, 14.2% at the Middle School, and 6.8% at the High School, while ELA declines far more gently (30.4% → 30.0% → 27.2%). Economic need is near-uniform across all four schools (86.67%–91.93% free/reduced lunch), so this is a district-wide condition rather than a single-building problem. Absenteeism is worst at the High School (37.0%) and best at the Primary and Intermediate schools (about 30%). Resources are weighted toward the earliest grades even though outcomes are weakest at the latest, with the Middle School carrying both the largest classes (17.8:1) and the lowest spending ($18,921 per student). Direction of travel is negative for the schools with the longest record: the High School moved from the 19th to the 9th percentile and the Intermediate School from the 28th to the 17th.