Best Public Schools in Milton Freewater, OR

The city of Milton Freewater, Oregon is served by four schools — two elementary, one middle, and one high school — all part of Milton-Freewater Unified School District 7, with a combined enrollment of 1,547 students and a systemwide poverty rate above 70% at every campus. Gib Olinger Elementary School (K–3) and Ferndale Elementary School (4–5) split the elementary grades, feeding Central Middle School (6–8) and then McLoughlin High School (9–12).

McLoughlin High School is the city's most mixed story: its graduation rate of 97.0% is 14.0 percentage points above the state's 83.0%, and its state rank climbed from the 11th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 32nd percentile in 2025–2026. Yet its chronic absenteeism, 47.6%, is the highest in the city and 14.1 points above the state, and its grade-11 math and science scores trail state levels. Central Middle School is the clearest concern, with the lowest proficiency in the city in every subject — 14.8% ELA, 10.1% math, and 14.3% science — a rank of 353 of 371 schools, and 0 stars.

Gib Olinger Elementary School is a math bright spot: its all-grades math proficiency of 35.9% beats the district's 20.2% and the state all-grades figure of 32.9%, and it has the city's lowest student-teacher ratio of 14.1 and highest spending at $20,464. Because it only serves K–3, though, that figure reflects grade 3, where the state reaches 41.3%. Ferndale Elementary School has the highest free/reduced lunch rate at 84.58% and the lowest chronic absenteeism at 28.0%, with scores above district averages in ELA, math, and science but still below state averages.