Stearns Elementary School

Stearns Elementary School is a K–6 school serving 354 students in Klamath Falls, Oregon, one of six elementary schools in the Klamath County School District, which ranks 78th of 141 districts in the state.

On the 2025–26 state tests, 25.2% of Stearns students met standards in English language arts, 16.7% in math, and 23.7% in science — the lowest results of any K–6 school in its district and well below every nearby campus. Peterson Elementary, less than a mile away, posts 34.2% in ELA and 27.4% in math; Ferguson Elementary (1.2 miles) reaches 44.3% and 35.4%; Shasta Elementary (1.8 miles) reaches 49.3% and 36.6%. Stearns' most distinctive pattern is a steady slide as students move up: ELA drops from 32.5% in 3rd grade to 15.8% in 6th, and math from 25.0% to just 5.3%. Science is the exception — Stearns is the only school in its group where science outperforms math, and its 5th-grade science result slightly exceeds the district average.

There are encouraging signs. Stearns' state rank has climbed from the 3rd percentile in 2023–24 to the 12th percentile in 2025–26, and chronic absenteeism fell from 48.3% to 33.9% in two years — a 14.4-point drop, far faster than the state or district. Students in special education now rank at the 71st percentile, a dramatic improvement. Notably, Stearns is not short on resources: it has the smallest classes in its group (14.0 students per teacher) and the second-highest spending ($26,900 per student), roughly $10,000 more per student than Peterson, Ferguson, or Henley. Keno Elementary, with similar staffing and even higher spending but a nearly identical poverty profile, posts 55.1% in ELA and 54.1% in math, which suggests Stearns' challenge is instructional rather than financial. Some figures, such as a large one-year jump in the poverty rate, likely reflect reporting changes rather than real shifts, so read year-to-year swings with caution.