Summary:
Pendleton School District 16 in Pendleton, Oregon includes 8 schools — 4 elementary, 1 middle, and 3 high schools — serving roughly 2,901 students, and the district ranks 110th of 141 in Oregon (about the 22nd percentile, 1 star). Enrollment varies widely: Pendleton High School is the largest with 763 students, while Hawthorne Alternative High School is the smallest with 56; Nixyaawii Community School has 89. The two small high schools together hold only about 5% of enrollment.
Among individual schools, McKay Creek Elementary School stands out most: its proficiency rates (ELA 50.8, math 38.3, science 34.0) are above district and state averages in all three subjects, its chronic absenteeism is only 14.1% versus the district's 33.3%, and it achieves this with a free/reduced lunch rate of 82.64%. Pendleton High School has the district's strongest high school results — a 94.6% graduation rate (state: 83.0%) and 45.3% science proficiency — though its ELA (37.3) and math (20.8) trail the state, and 37.2% of students are chronically absent. Sherwood Heights Elementary School has the weakest elementary profile (ELA 31.4, math 23.6, science 24.7), while Washington Elementary School shows a bright spot in 5th-grade ELA at 49.5%.
The most serious challenges are at Hawthorne Alternative High School and Nixyaawii Community School. Hawthorne reports 94.2% chronic absenteeism, a 72.2% graduation rate, 9.1% ELA and 18.2% science proficiency, plus the district's highest student-teacher ratio (31.1) and lowest per-student spending ($4,823); its math score is suppressed by the state, so it is unknown rather than zero. Nixyaawii dropped from 76th percentile (4 stars) in 2024-2025 to 5th percentile (0 stars) in 2025-2026, with 56.4% chronic absenteeism, an 80.0% graduation rate, 28.6% ELA, under 5% math, and 6.3% science. With only 89 and 56 students, these schools' year-to-year swings should be read with caution. Districtwide, math is the weakest subject: 23.8% versus 32.9% statewide.
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