Best Middle Schools in Gresham, OR

Gresham, Oregon is home to four public middle schools serving grades 6–8, all within the Gresham-Barlow School District 10J, a district ranked 114th of 141 in Oregon at the 19th percentile with 1 star. Together they enroll 2,114 students, ranging from 383 at West Orient Middle School to 633 at Gordon Russell Middle School. All four schools score below the state average in ELA, math, and science.

West Orient Middle School stands out as the strongest in the group. It holds the best rank (254th of 371, 32nd percentile) and 2 stars, and it is the only school above the district average in all three tested subjects, with the highest math and science proficiency among the four. Its chronic absenteeism of 26.7% is well below the district's 40.3% and the state's 33.5%. Its 6th-grade ELA score of 50.0% is the highest single grade-level ELA result in the data. Dexter McCarty Middle School is more uneven: it has the highest ELA proficiency at 38.5% and a 7th-grade ELA score of 47.8% that tops the state's 45.3%, yet the lowest science proficiency at 7.7%.

Clear Creek Middle School is the weakest performer, ranked 352nd of 371 at the 5th percentile with 0 stars, the lowest ELA (20.8%) and math (10.5%) proficiency, and the highest absenteeism at 39.7%. Gordon Russell Middle School is the largest and lowest-spending school at $18,389 per student. Poverty is uniformly high across all four schools (82.30% to 83.57% free/reduced lunch), so it does not explain their differences. Spending and staffing ratios do not track outcomes simply either: Clear Creek has the lowest student-teacher ratio at 18.2 but the weakest results, while West Orient has the highest at 19.9 and the best.