Summary:
Gaston, Oregon is a small community served by just two public schools in the Gaston School District 511J: Gaston Elementary School, which covers grades K–6 with 228 students, and Gaston Junior/Senior High School, which serves grades 7–12 with 246 students. Because there is no standalone middle school, grades 7 and 8 attend the junior/senior high building. Both schools sit at the same address on Park Street, and both enroll a similar mix of students, with free or reduced lunch rates near 62% at each campus. Total enrollment across the district is 474 students.
Parents will find real strengths here. The district ranks 51st of 141 in Oregon — the 64th percentile, with 3 stars. The high school's graduation rate is 95.3%, well above the state's 83.0%. Across all grades, both schools beat the state in English language arts and science, and 7th-grade ELA stands out at 65.6% versus 45.3% statewide, with 5th- and 6th-grade ELA also strong. Attendance differs sharply between the two campuses: elementary chronic absenteeism is 28.6%, better than both the district (38.4%) and the state (33.5%), while the high school's is 47.6%. The elementary school ranks at the 56th percentile with 3 stars; the high school ranks at the 33rd percentile with 2 stars.
Math is the clearest weakness. High school math is 22.6%, below the district's 28.6% and the state's 32.9%, with 11th-grade math at 12.5%. Elementary 5th-grade math is a sharp outlier at 17.9%, against the state's 32.4%. 11th-grade ELA is 32.0%, below the state's 46.0%. The high school also spends more per student ($20,178 versus $18,412) without consistently stronger results. The main areas to watch are high school math, high school attendance, and 11th-grade ELA.
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