McLoughlin High School

McLoughlin High School is a public high school in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, serving grades 9–12 in the Milton-Freewater Unified School District 7 and enrolling 449 students, making it the larger high school in its immediate comparison area. In 2025–2026, it ranked 184th out of 271 Oregon high schools, placing it in the 32nd percentile with 2 stars, an improvement from 2023–2024 when it ranked 239th out of 268, though still below the state median.

Compared with nearby Weston-McEwen High School in the Athena-Weston School District 29RJ, the school is larger, spends less per student ($17,721 versus $25,468 in 2024–2025), and has a higher student-teacher ratio (18.5 versus 11.7). Its graduation rate is slightly higher—97.0% versus 95.2%, and well above Oregon’s 83.0%—but its chronic absenteeism is higher at 47.6% compared with 44.7% at the nearby school and 33.5% statewide. In 2025–2026, its all-grade proficiency rates were 36.8% in English language arts, 19.4% in math, and 23.7% in science, below state averages and below the nearby school in every subject.

Graduation is the school’s clearest strength: the rate rose from 74.5% in 2020–2021 to 97.0% in 2024–2025, a strong outcome for a school where about 73% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Recent subgroup results also show improvement for low-income and English language learner students, with those groups ranking above the school’s overall percentile in 2025–2026. At the same time, chronic absenteeism remains a major challenge, and math proficiency is especially low at 19.4% versus 32.9% statewide. Per-student spending has declined in recent years while the student-teacher ratio has risen, even as graduation rates improved. Overall, the school appears to be helping more students finish high school, but it still faces substantial attendance and classroom-proficiency gaps.