Summary:
Pendleton, Oregon is home to three high schools serving grades 9–12 — Pendleton High School, Nixyaawii Community School, and Hawthorne Alternative High School — all part of Pendleton School District 16, which ranks 110th of 141 Oregon districts (22nd percentile, 1 star). Combined enrollment is 908 students, with Pendleton High alone accounting for 763 of them.
Pendleton High is the largest and strongest performer: its 94.6% graduation rate tops the district's 89.7% and the state's 83.0%, and its 45.3% science proficiency is well above the state's 30.6%. It ranks 117th of 271 (57th percentile, 3 stars) after several lower-ranked years. Still, its 37.2% chronic absenteeism is above district and state, and its ELA (37.3%) and math (20.8%) scores trail the state. Nixyaawii, with 89 students, swung sharply from 65th of 270 with 4 stars in 2024–2025 to 257th of 271 with 0 stars in 2025–2026; its math proficiency is under 5% and science 6.3%, with an 80.0% graduation rate and 56.4% absenteeism. Hawthorne, the smallest at 56 students, faces the most severe challenges: 94.2% chronic absenteeism, a 72.2% graduation rate, 9.1% ELA and 18.2% science proficiency, and a rank of 259th of 271.
Absenteeism exceeds district and state levels at all three schools, though the severity differs greatly. Reported per-student spending varies enormously — $19,115 at Pendleton High versus $5,147 at Nixyaawii and $4,823 at Hawthorne. Class size does not line up simply with outcomes: Nixyaawii has the lowest student-teacher ratio (12.4) yet very low math and science results, while Hawthorne has the highest (31.1). Only Pendleton High reports free/reduced lunch data (96.33%). Hawthorne's math score is suppressed, Nixyaawii's is a bound of under 5%, and free/reduced lunch is missing for two schools, so those figures should be treated as unknown rather than as proof of weakness.
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