St Helens School District 502

St Helens School District 502 is a small, single-town district in Columbia County, Oregon, serving 2,856 students across eight schools: four elementary schools, one middle school, two high schools, and one K–12 alternative/virtual school. The district as a whole is ranked 106th of 141 Oregon districts (25th percentile, 1 star), and its poverty profile is remarkably uniform — six of the seven reporting schools have free/reduced-price lunch rates between 72.3% and 73.9%.

The clear standout is St Helens Arthur Academy, the only school rated above 1 star (4 stars, 80th percentile, and rising from 59th to 71st to 80th). It has the district's highest proficiency in all three subjects — ELA 66.7%, math 40.9%, science 61.9% — above the state in every subject, plus the lowest chronic absenteeism (23.3%), lowest student/teacher ratio (11.0), lowest FRL rate (38.1%), and lowest per-student spending ($4,516). St Helens High School is the district's paradox: the best graduation rate (89.5%, above the state's 83.0%) and above-state 11th-grade science (40.8% vs. 33.8%), yet the lowest reported math figure in the file (12.3% vs. the state's 22.9%).

Math is the district-wide weak point (19.9%, 13 points below the state) and it worsens with grade level. Chronic absenteeism is the strongest predictor of outcomes here, ranging from best-in-district at Arthur Academy to nearly universal at Plymouth High School (80.0%), which also has the lowest graduation rate (55.2%) and the highest per-student spending ($26,934). St. Helens Virtual Academy and Plymouth High have all test scores state-suppressed, so their achievement is unknown — not zero — yet they concentrate the district's most severe risk indicators while enrolling only 7.6% of students. Lewis & Clark Elementary has fallen from 2 stars to 1 star, with the district's lowest ELA (24.2%) and the highest absenteeism among comprehensive schools (42.4%).