Lookingglass Elementary School

Lookingglass Elementary School is a PK–5 school with 131 students located on Lookingglass Road in the rural outskirts of Roseburg, Oregon, and it is the only comprehensive PK–5 elementary in the Winston-Dillard School District 116. It is by far the smallest school among its nearby peers, where the other ten elementaries range from 224 to 394 students — roughly 20–25 students per grade, so single-year changes should be read with caution. In 2025-26 it ranked 634th of 709 Oregon elementary schools (11th percentile, 1 star), its lowest mark in a decade and 24 percentile points below the previous year. Proficiency is near the bottom of the local group: 28.6% in English language arts, 14.3% in math, and under 5% in science — a state-suppressed figure meaning fewer than about 1 in 20 tested students — compared with state rates of 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%. The clearest strength is attendance. Chronic absenteeism of 25.8% beats both the district (36.6%) and the state (33.5%), and is second-lowest of the eleven schools compared. Spending has risen 34% in three years, to $18,877 per student, and the student-teacher ratio improved from 17.1 to 13.1, third-lowest locally. Third-grade ELA (43.8%) actually beats district and state averages and is third-highest in the comparison set — but grades 4 and 5 post the lowest ELA results of all eleven schools, and 5th-grade math (9.5%) is roughly a quarter of the state rate. Math and science, not reading, are the deepest gaps. Nearby schools show that local demographics and funding do not determine results. Melrose Elementary (Douglas County SD 4, 5 miles away) serves a higher-poverty population with similar spending and posts 64.7% ELA, 66.0% math, and 56.5% science; Hucrest Elementary is also strong at similar funding. Within the same district, McGovern Elementary outscores Lookingglass in every subject — which matters most, since families here have no same-district alternative for the full PK–5 span.