Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 97002

Elementary schools in ZIP code 97002 come down to two schools that together serve the full PK–5 span: North Marion Primary School (grades PK–2, 285 students) and North Marion Intermediate School (grades 3–5, 345 students), both in North Marion School District 15, for a combined elementary enrollment of 630 students in an area where most families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

The two schools differ most in their resources. North Marion Primary has the higher poverty indicator at 91.93% free/reduced lunch versus 86.67% at Intermediate, yet it spends more per student — $22,918 compared with $19,062, roughly 20% more — and has the smaller student-teacher ratio of 13.5 versus 14.6. Both schools keep chronic absenteeism below the district and state rate of 33.5%, at 30.1% at Primary and 30.2% at Intermediate, which is a relative strength given the high poverty levels. Note that Primary has no state test scores in this data, which is expected for a PK–2 school rather than a sign of poor performance.

North Marion Intermediate is the only school here with test results and rank history. In 2025–26 OSAS all-grade results, it posted 30.4% in ELA, 21.3% in math, and 19.3% in science — above its district in all three subjects (by 0.6, 5.3, and 5.1 percentage points) but below the state, where the same figures are 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%. ELA proficiency rises across grades 3–5 (28.7% to 30.3% to 33.0%), while grade 5 math is the weakest result at 14.8%. The school has held 1 star for three years, but its percentile rank has slipped from 28 to 23 to 17. The district overall sits at the 6th percentile with 0 stars.