Summary:
Scotts Mills, Oregon is a one-school town: the entire K–8 population attends Scotts Mills Elementary School, a single elementary building at 805 First St with 141 students, part of Silver Falls School District 4J. There are no other public schools in the city — no middle school and no high school — so there are no in-city peers to compare against; every measure here is set against the district or the state of Oregon.
The most important thing for parents to know is the gap between the school and its own district. The district ranks in the top 20% of Oregon (28th of 141, four stars), yet the school rates two stars and trails the district by 9 to 20 percentage points in every tested subject: 39.1% in English language arts versus 51.3% district-wide and 43.8% statewide; 23.2% in math versus 37.0% and 32.9%; and 20.0% in science versus 40.5% and 30.6%. Math and science are the weakest areas. One genuine bright spot: chronic absenteeism is 29.5%, better than both the district (30.1%) and the state (33.5%), so attendance is being managed well even though test scores lag.
The trend, however, is moving in the right direction. The school's state rank has climbed from 529th (25th percentile, one star) in 2023‑24 to 482nd (32nd) and then 423rd (40th percentile, two stars) in 2025‑26 — a 15-point percentile gain in two years. Grade-level results show real strength in 3rd and 4th grade ELA, both at 50.0% and above the state, but a sharp drop by 6th grade (21.4% ELA, 14.3% math), and 8th grade science is the single largest gap at 10.0%. With only 141 students, grade groups are tiny — one student can shift a percentage by 6–7 points — so parents should weigh the multi-year trend more heavily than any single year's number.
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