Summary:
Baker School District 5J includes two middle schools, both in Baker City, Oregon: South Baker Intermediate School, serving grades 4–6 with 268 students, and Baker Middle School, serving grades 7–8 with 226 students. The district ranks 43rd out of 141 Oregon districts, at the 70th percentile with 4 stars. Both schools serve high-poverty populations, with free/reduced lunch at 81.72% at South Baker and 84.07% at Baker Middle. Because the two schools cover different grade spans, their "All Grades" results are not grade-for-grade comparable.
Test scores show math as the clearest dividing line. Baker Middle's All Grades math proficiency is 28.9%, slightly above the district's 28.4% and 4.0 percentage points below the state's 32.9%, and its 7th grade math is 29.2%. Its 7th grade ELA is 43.1%, close to the district's 44.2% and the state's 45.3%, but 8th grade ELA drops to 30.6%, which is 10.5 points below the district and 10.9 points below the state. South Baker trails the district and state in every reported subject and grade. Its All Grades math is 18.2% — 10.2 points below the district and 14.7 points below the state — and its 5th grade math of 11.7% is the lowest figure in this data set, 20.7 points below the state. Science is weak at both schools: 23.0% at South Baker and 25.9% at Baker Middle, both below the state's 30.6%.
Chronic absenteeism is 31.6% at South Baker and 30.8% at Baker Middle, above the district's 26.1% but below the state's 33.5%. Baker Middle spends $19,133 per student versus $16,946 at South Baker, while student-teacher ratios are nearly identical at 15.2 and 15.4. The district sits at the 70th percentile with 4 stars, yet Baker Middle's own school-level rank is 219th out of 371 in 2025–2026, the 41st percentile with 2 stars, down from 184th out of 371, the 50th percentile with 3 stars, in 2023–2024. No school-level rank history is provided for South Baker. Overall, math at South Baker and ELA and science at Baker Middle are the clearest areas for attention.
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