Summary
Taft High School is a grades 9–12 public high school serving 535 students in the coastal community of Lincoln City, Oregon, and is part of the Lincoln County School District. In 2025–2026, Taft ranked 192nd of 271 Oregon high schools (29th percentile, 1 star), while its district ranked 113th of 141 (20th percentile, 1 star).
The school's clearest strength is its graduation rate: 93.2% in 2024–2025, above the district's 88.1% and the state's 83.0%. Test scores tell a different story. Proficiency is below state averages in every tested subject — ELA 38.2%, math 15.1%, and science 22.6%, compared with statewide rates of 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%. Math is the deepest concern, at less than half the state rate. Chronic absenteeism is 47.9%, well above the district (39.1%) and the state (33.5%), and it has stayed near 46–48% for four years, suggesting attendance is a structural challenge rather than a one-year blip. Another concern: students from low-income backgrounds ranked in the 5th percentile in 2025–2026, down sharply from 42nd percentile two years earlier.
The nearest comparable school is Nestucca High School, about 19 miles away in Cloverdale. It is much smaller, with 162 students, and belongs to Nestucca Valley School District 101J, whose district rank is lower than Taft's. Yet Nestucca High itself ranked 135th of 271 (50th percentile, 3 stars), higher than Taft. Nestucca's ELA proficiency is 59.1%, more than 20 points above Taft's, while math (15.9%) and science (24.4%) are nearly identical at the two schools — suggesting the math and science struggles may be regional, while the ELA gap is more specific to Taft. Nestucca also spends about $7,700 more per student ($33,012 vs. $25,355) and has a student-teacher ratio of 11.9:1 versus Taft's 22.6:1.
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