Harrisburg School District 7J

Harrisburg School District 7J is a small Oregon district with three schools—Harrisburg Elementary School (K–4), Harrisburg Middle School (5–8), and Harrisburg High School (9–12)—together enrolling 861 students in a high-poverty community where free/reduced lunch rates are nearly identical at about 73–74%. The district is ranked 124th of 141 in Oregon, in the 12th percentile, with 1 star. Because poverty is uniformly high, differences between the schools are not explained by sharply different poverty rates.

Harrisburg Elementary School is the district’s clear standout: all-grade ELA is 41.9% and math is 32.3%, close to state averages (43.8% ELA, 32.9% math), and chronic absenteeism is 31.2%, better than the state’s 33.5%. Its rank is 43rd percentile with 2 stars, though that is down from 60th–62nd percentile and 3 stars in the prior two years. Harrisburg Middle School is mixed: science is 22% (above district 18.6%, below state 30.6%), and 7th-grade ELA is 40%, but all-grade ELA is 29.5%, math is 19.6%, 6th-grade ELA is 15.4%, and 8th-grade math is 10.2%. It remains 1 star at 22nd percentile. Harrisburg High School is the most concerning: all-grade ELA is 17%, math is 6.5%, science is 9.8%, graduation rate is 74.1%, and chronic absenteeism is 46.3%. It ranks 264th of 271, at 3rd percentile with 0 stars, after collapsing from 47th percentile and 2 stars in 2023–24.

Achievement drops sharply from elementary to middle to high school, and chronic absenteeism mirrors that pattern. The high school is far below district and state norms in every tested subject, and its 11th-grade math proficiency is only 6.5% versus 22.9% statewide. Resources do not track simply with outcomes: the high school spends the most per student ($18,704) and has the lowest student-teacher ratio (13.0), yet has the weakest results, while the middle school spends the least ($14,196) with the highest ratio (17.5) but still outperforms the high school in every tested subject. The elementary school is the only bright spot, but 4th-grade math is 27.9% versus 38.9% statewide, and its ranking slipped to 2 stars. The district overall remains in the bottom 12% of Oregon districts.