Summary
North Marion Middle School serves about 410 students in grades 6–8 in Aurora, Oregon, a small community in Marion County roughly 20 miles south of Portland, and is part of North Marion School District 15. Its statewide standing is weak and has been for a decade: in 2025–26 it ranked 322nd of 371 Oregon middle schools (13th percentile, 1 star), and across ten years of rankings it never earned more than 1 star except in 2024–25, when it briefly reached 2 stars. The district itself ranks 133rd of 141 Oregon districts (6th percentile, 0 stars), so the school actually sits slightly above its own district.
Test scores trail the state, with the biggest gaps in math and science. English language arts proficiency is 30.0% against Oregon's 43.8%; math is 14.2% against 32.9%; science is 11.0% against 30.6%. The single weakest spot is 7th-grade math, where 10.8% of students meet the standard versus 33.3% statewide. ELA also declines by grade, from 35.3% in 6th grade to 25.6% in 8th. Among ten nearby middle schools, only the two Woodburn district schools, French Prairie Middle School and Valor Middle School, rank below North Marion. Every other neighbor outperforms it, including Molalla River Middle School, which is similar in size, and the much higher-scoring Inza R Wood Middle School, Sherwood Middle School, and Mt Angel Middle School.
Chronic absenteeism is the one area where North Marion now looks typical: 33.9% of students are chronically absent, essentially matching Oregon's 33.5% and down 5.1 points from the year before. That means attendance alone does not explain the score gaps. Neither does money or class size — per-student spending is $18,921, right at the average of nearby schools, and its student-teacher ratio of 17.8 is better than several higher-performing neighbors. Mt Angel is the most instructive comparison: similar economic profile, similar spending, and a smaller enrollment, yet far higher scores and much lower absenteeism. One caution for parents: the school's free/reduced-lunch rate jumped to 88.05% in 2024–25 from about 56% the year before, which likely reflects a change in counting method rather than a real shift in the student body, so that figure should not be used to compare schools right now.
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