Summary:
Bandon, Oregon is served by three public schools — Ocean Crest Elementary School (grades K–4, 240 students), Harbor Lights Middle School (grades 5–8, 195 students), and Bandon Senior High School (grades 9–12, 212 students) — all within Bandon School District 54. The district enrolls 647 students total and ranks 42 of 141 districts, at the 70th percentile with 4 stars. All three schools have free/reduced lunch rates near 89%, making this a consistently high-poverty district where outcomes vary sharply by school.
Bandon Senior High School is the clear standout. It ranks 46 of 271 (83rd percentile, 4 stars), up from the 42nd percentile in 2021–2022. Its graduation rate is 84.3%, above the state's 83.0%, and its chronic absenteeism of 16.1% is less than half the state's 33.5% and well below the district's 28.5%. Test scores beat the state comfortably: ELA 61.1% vs 43.8%, math 35.7% vs 32.9%, and science 48.0% vs 30.6%. It also has the lowest student-teacher ratio (12.4) and highest per-student spending ($24,329) in the group — impressive given that 88.68% of its students qualify for free/reduced lunch.
The two lower schools have both declined sharply. Ocean Crest Elementary School fell from the 79th percentile in 2023–2024 to 41st percentile, 2 stars in 2025–2026; Harbor Lights Middle School fell from the 82nd to 44th percentile, also 2 stars — a parallel 38-point drop for both. Their chronic absenteeism (35.9% and 32.9%) sits above the district average. Math is the weakest link: Harbor Lights' Grade 6–8 math scores (20.6%, 22.0%, 13.8%) trail state rates (29.7%, 33.3%, 30.0%), though its Grade 5 and Grade 7 ELA scores are both 59.0%. The district's favorable 70th-percentile summary largely reflects the high school's strength.
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