Winter Lakes Elementary

Winter Lakes Elementary is a small K–8 school with 106 students on North Fir Street in Coquille, a town of roughly 4,000 people in Coos County, Oregon, where it operates within Coquille School District 8. By the state's own measures the school sits near the bottom of Oregon's roughly 709 elementary schools — ranking 692nd (2nd percentile) in 2025–26 and 678th (5th percentile) in 2023–24. On 2025–26 state tests, 19.1% of students met standards in English language arts, 5.9% in math, and 14.3% in science, against state rates of 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%.

The most striking thing in the data is how different the two Coquille schools look. Coquille Valley Elementary, 0.55 miles away and serving grades 2–6 in the same district, reports 55.2% ELA, 51.9% math, and 40.7% science, ranking 147th of 709 (79th percentile). That's a 36-point gap in ELA, 46 points in math, and 26 points in science between buildings nine blocks apart. Grade by grade the pattern repeats — for example, grade 3 ELA is 10% at Winter Lakes versus 63.3% at Coquille Valley, and grade 3 math is under 5% versus 67.2%. Winter Lakes also spends far less per student, $7,062 in 2024–25, versus $19,128 at Coquille Valley. Spending alone isn't the whole story: Lighthouse Charter School in Coos Bay spends nearly the same amount ($7,092) yet reports 44% ELA and 32.3% math.

The school's best news is attendance: chronic absenteeism fell from 63.5% to 44.3% in one year, moving it below the district rate (46.7%) for the first time, though still above Oregon's 33.5%. Student–teacher ratio (15.1) is in line with nearby schools such as Eastside School and Millicoma School, so class size isn't the obvious issue. Reading the numbers takes care: with about a dozen students per grade, single-grade results swing easily, and the state suppresses grades 7–8 ELA and math, grade 8 science, and reports grade 3 math only as under 5%. Parents should treat those gaps as unknown, and ask how the attendance gains are being connected to classroom learning.