LaPine Elementary School

LaPine Elementary School is a public K–5 school serving 483 students in La Pine, Oregon, and it is the largest of the three elementary schools in the immediate area. It belongs to Bend-LaPine Administrative School District 1, which ranks 34th of 141 districts in Oregon (4 stars) — but the school itself sits far below that, at 600th of 709 schools (15th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–26. In the decade of rankings available, LaPine has never climbed out of the bottom third of Oregon elementary schools; its best years reached only the 31st percentile.

The most useful comparison is right down the road. Rosland Elementary, about two miles away, serves the same town, the same grades, and nearly the same share of low-income students — yet it spends $23,382 per student with a 10.8-to-1 class ratio, versus LaPine's $16,374 and 17.5-to-1, and still scores lower in every subject (14.7 vs 23.5 in reading). Meanwhile Gilchrist Elementary School serves a similarly high-poverty population and performs near state averages, and Three Rivers Elementary School, in the same district, scores more than double LaPine in reading. Notably, LaPine's reading results trail the state by about 20 points, while its math results trail by about 9 — reading, not math, is where the gap is widest.

Chronic absenteeism is the school's most persistent issue: 48.5% in 2024–25, versus 34.2% district-wide and 33.5% statewide, and it has run 12 to 25 points above the district for five straight years. Low-income students, the large majority here, perform at the 42nd percentile — well above the school's overall standing — and special education results dropped sharply in 2024–25. The honest picture is long-term stagnation in the bottom quarter rather than decline, with early literacy as the clearest place to focus.