Nyssa School District 26

Nyssa School District 26 in the Nyssa, Oregon area serves four schools — Nyssa Virtual School, Nyssa Elementary School, Nyssa Middle School, and Nyssa High School — spanning kindergarten through 12th grade and enrolling 2,115 students. The virtual school is the largest with 987 students, about 46.7% of the total. The district ranks 27th of 141 Oregon districts, in the 81st percentile with 4 stars, but the latest school-level ranks are lower: Elementary 33rd, Middle 48th, and High 43rd, all at 2 stars.

The virtual school has by far the strongest proficiency: ELA 76.9%, math 59.8%, and science 61.8%, compared with district rates of 46.8%, 32.8%, and 34.1% and state rates of 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%. However, it is an alternative K–12 school with a 292.8 student-teacher ratio, $6,870 per-student spending, no reported free/reduced-lunch percentage, and a 2023–2024 graduation rate of 0.0%, which likely reflects a reporting issue or no graduating cohort. The high school has a strong 94.0% graduation rate, above the district’s 86.7% and state’s 83.0%, but its math proficiency is only 16.2%, below the state’s 22.9%, and its rank fell from the 86th percentile to the 43rd. The middle school’s rank improved from 37 to 48, and its 8th-grade ELA is 52.2%, above the state’s 41.5%, though 8th-grade science is 22.2%, below district and state. The elementary school trails state in ELA, math, and science, but has 12.9% chronic absenteeism and the best traditional student-teacher ratio at 13.7.

Across the traditional schools, free/reduced-lunch rates are high, from 90.44% to 93.13%, and per-student spending ranges from $19,888 to $21,057, while the virtual school spends $6,870. Chronic absenteeism is 28.0% at the high school, 16.6% at the middle school, and 12.9% at the elementary school, all below Oregon’s 33.5%. The clearest concerns are high school math and middle/elementary science; the clearest strengths are the virtual school’s ELA and math results, the high school’s graduation rate, and the middle school’s improving rank trend. Higher spending does not automatically match higher proficiency here, likely because the virtual and brick-and-mortar schools operate very differently.