Summary:
Gaston School District 511J, a small rural district in Washington County, Oregon, contains just one high school — Gaston Junior/Senior High School — which serves grades 7 through 12 and enrolls 246 students, making it both the district's middle school and its high school. With roughly 40 students per grade, the campus reports per-student spending of $20,178, a student–teacher ratio of 14.6, and a student body in which 61.79% qualify for free or reduced lunch.
The school's strengths are clear. Its graduation rate of 95.3% far outpaces Oregon's 83.0%, a 12.3-point advantage. Seventh grade English language arts proficiency reaches 65.6% against a 45.3% state figure — a 20.3-point gap — and all-grades ELA (49.4%) also edges the state (43.8%). Science is above the state at every reported level: 33.9% all grades versus 30.6%, 33.3% in 8th grade versus 27.7%, and 34.5% in 11th grade versus 33.8%.
The concerns are equally concentrated. Chronic absenteeism stands at 47.6% — nearly half of all students — compared with 33.5% statewide and 38.4% across the district. Math is the weakest subject: 22.6% proficient in all grades versus 32.9% statewide, and only 12.5% in 11th grade versus 22.9% state. Eleventh grade ELA sits at 32.0% against 46.0% state. Notably, the school's strongest academic results sit in its middle grades while its oldest cohort trails badly; since each grade holds only about 40 students, individual percentages are directional rather than precise, and the school has held a 2-star rating within the 28th–43rd percentile over three years.
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