Summary:
Independence, Oregon has just one public high school: Central High School, which serves grades 9–12 with 1,008 students as part of Central School District 13J. Because it is the city's only high school, everything reported for Independence high schools is really a picture of this one school, so the most useful comparisons are against its own district and against Oregon statewide averages.
Central High School carries a 1-star rating and ranked 218 of 271 Oregon high schools in 2025–26, with a reported percentile of 20 — an improvement from 243 of 270 and the 10th percentile in 2024–25. Its academic results are split. English Language Arts is a relative strength: 42.9% of 11th graders were proficient, only 3.1 percentage points below the state's 46.0%, and all-grades ELA is just 0.9 percentage points below the state rate. Mathematics and science are the clear weaknesses: 7.0% of 11th graders were proficient in math versus 22.9% statewide, a 15.9-point gap, and 13.1% in science versus 33.8% statewide, a 20.7-point gap.
Other measures point to engagement challenges. The 2024–25 graduation rate was 77.3%, about 5.7 percentage points below the state's 83.0%, and chronic absenteeism was 37.9% against the state's 33.5% — meaning more than one in three students missed enough school to be chronically absent. Economic need is very high, with 94.25% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, and the school spends $19,907 per student with a student-teacher ratio of 21.5. In short, families should see a school with improving but still low rankings, near-average reading results, and meaningful work ahead in math, science, attendance, and graduation.
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