Gilchrist Junior/Senior High School

Gilchrist Junior/Senior High School is a small rural public school in Gilchrist, Oregon, serving 105 students in grades 7–12 as part of the Klamath County School District. In 2025–2026, it ranked 203rd of 271 schools (25th percentile, 1 star); its district ranked 78th of 141 (45th percentile, 2 stars). The only nearby comparison, LaPine Senior High School, is about 16.5 miles away, serves 440 students in grades 9–12, and is in the Bend-LaPine Administrative School District 1, which ranks 34th of 141 (76th percentile, 4 stars). LaPine’s school rank is 210th of 271 (23rd percentile, 1 star). Because Gilchrist includes grades 7–8, all-grade test comparisons are not fully apples-to-apples; 11th-grade results are the cleanest high school comparison.

Academically, Gilchrist’s 2024–2025 graduation rate was 80.0%, above LaPine’s 73.8% but below its district’s 86.7% and the state’s 83.0%. The most urgent concern is chronic absenteeism: 59.6% in 2024–2025, far above LaPine’s 43.3%, the district’s 31.0%, and the state’s 33.5%. At the 11th-grade level, Gilchrist outperformed LaPine in ELA (33.3% vs. 14.3%), math (7.1% vs. under 5%), and science (30.8% vs. 25.9%), but still trailed the state in all three. Math is the weakest area; science is relatively stronger. All-grade proficiency was 27.3% in ELA, 14.3% in math, and 23.1% in science. Some 7th-grade scores are suppressed and should be treated as unknown.

Gilchrist spends far more per student than LaPine—$37,495 vs. $21,547 in 2024–2025, about 74% higher—and has a much lower student/teacher ratio (8.9 vs. 17.4). Yet 98.1% of its students qualified for free/reduced lunch, compared with 48.64% at LaPine. Despite these resources, outcomes remain below state and district norms, and attendance is the clearest red flag. Performance is also volatile: the school’s rank moved from the 5th percentile in 2022–2023 to the 55th, 70th, and then 25th percentile in 2025–2026. With only 105 students, small cohort changes can cause large swings, so single-year results should be treated cautiously. LaPine’s math scores are reported as under 5%, which is a bound, not an exact figure.