Henry L Slater Elementary School

Henry L Slater Elementary School is a K–5 school in Burns, Oregon, a small, remote community in Harney County, enrolling 297 students and served by Harney County School District 3; it is the only school within 20 miles.

In 2025–26, the school ranked 588th of 709 Oregon elementary schools — 17th percentile with 1 star — down from 55th percentile in 2014–15. Students scored below the state in English language arts (28.3% proficient vs. 43.8%), math (24.1% vs. 32.9%), and science (13.7% vs. 30.6%). The school does outperform its district in every subject, but the gap to state norms remains large, especially in science, where proficiency is less than half the state rate. Grade 5 is the clearest weak spot: only 10.0% were proficient in math and 13.7% in science, far below grades 3 and 4. On the positive side, chronic absenteeism was 23.9% in 2024–25, better than the district's 37.7% and the state's 33.5%, and down from 34.2% in 2022–23. Per-student spending is $18,273, with a 14.4:1 student–teacher ratio.

For parents, the key tension is that attendance is a real strength while classroom proficiency is not. The school gets students to school more consistently than its district and the state, yet test scores remain in the bottom fifth of Oregon elementary schools. The 2024–25 rank improvement to the 41st percentile was not sustained in 2025–26, showing that one year of data at a small school of 297 students should be read cautiously. Special education students have improved from the 6th percentile in 2022–23 to the 23rd percentile in 2025–26, still low but moving upward. Because there are no other schools within 20 miles, the most useful comparisons are to the district and state — and they show the school is the stronger performer locally but still below state averages. The biggest question is why strong attendance has not translated into stronger reading, math, and science results, especially by grade 5.