Summary:
Neah-Kah-Nie School District 56 is a small district on Oregon's north coast serving 693 students across four schools — one high school, one middle school and two elementaries — that together cover the full K–12 pipeline, and it ranks 10th of 141 Oregon districts (93rd percentile, 5 stars).
Each building has a distinct profile. Neah-Kah-Nie High School is the district's turnaround story: its state rank climbed from 177th of 270 (34th percentile, 2 stars) in 2024-2025 to 37th of 271 (86th percentile, 4 stars) in 2025-2026, with 11th-grade ELA at 66.7% and math at 41.5%. Neah-Kah-Nie Middle School has been the steadiest high performer, holding 4 stars in all three years and posting 8th-grade science at 60.7% against 27.7% statewide — the largest margin over state in the district. Nehalem Elementary School has also earned 4 stars in each of the last three years, though its rank slipped from 110th of 710 (85th percentile) to 200th of 709 (72nd percentile). Garibaldi Elementary School is the outlier: the only school without a 4-star year (50th percentile, 3 stars in 2025-2026) and the only one below the state rate in a subject — 5th-grade science at 26.3% versus 30.8%.
All four schools beat the state average in both ELA and math, and the district's largest relative strength is science (+17.2 points). Three things for parents to watch: math is the narrowest margin (district +5.6 points); district math proficiency drops from 45.3% in 4th grade to 27.1% in 5th grade, below the state's 32.4%; and chronic absenteeism runs at 37.7% districtwide versus 33.5% statewide, with the middle school highest at 45.5%.
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