Best Public Schools in Irrigon, OR

Irrigon has four schools serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade, all within Morrow School District 1, a district ranked 74th of 141 in Oregon — the 48th percentile, with 2 stars. Irrigon Junior/Senior High School serves grades 7–12 and is the largest with 345 students, followed by A C Houghton Elementary School (K–6, 221 students), Irrigon Elementary School (grades 4–6, 159 students), and Morrow Education Center, an alternative K–12 school with 62 students. Together they enroll 787 students.

Each school tells a different story. Irrigon Junior/Senior High shows the clearest improvement, climbing from the 15th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 49th percentile in 2025–2026 and gaining a second star. Its graduation rate is 95.7%, well above the state's 83.0%, and its 11th-grade English proficiency of 57.4% beats both district and state. However, math (16.2%) and science (18.2%) trail far behind state averages, and 41.7% of its students are chronically absent. Irrigon Elementary stands out for the lowest absenteeism (29.9%) and smallest classes (12.7 students per teacher). A C Houghton has the highest poverty rate (75.57% free/reduced lunch) and the highest spending ($24,569 per student); its math matches the state while English falls well short. Morrow Education Center faces the steepest challenges, with 75.4% chronic absenteeism, all-grades English at 19.4%, math at 8.3%, and science under 5%.

Science is the weakest area across every school, and every reported science result sits below the state average. Math is generally behind as well, with one exception: Irrigon Elementary's 6th-grade math at 31.3% edges past the state's 29.7%. Attendance is a district-wide concern, and only Irrigon Elementary is below both district and state levels. Parents should note that some scores are suppressed by the state and should be treated as unknown rather than zero, and that small enrollments make year-to-year comparisons less reliable. Morrow Education Center, as an alternative school, serves a different population, so its figures are not directly comparable to the other three.