Summary:
ZIP code 97017 covers Colton, Oregon, a small rural community, and it contains exactly one middle school: Colton Middle School, serving grades 6–8 with about 110 students — roughly 37 per grade — as part of Colton School District 53. With only one school in the area, there is no cross-school comparison to make, so the useful question is how this school performs against its own district and against Oregon overall.
On 2025-2026 state testing, results split sharply by grade. English language arts is the steadiest subject: every grade lands between about 76% and 87% of the state proficiency rate, with all grades at 35.6% versus 43.8% statewide. Sixth grade math is the single bright spot, at 32.0% proficient against 28.6% in the district and 29.7% statewide — the only metric beating both benchmarks. The defining weakness is 8th grade: just 6.9% proficient in math and 6.3% in science, compared with 30.0% and 27.7% statewide. Science is tested only at grade 8 here, so the schoolwide science figure of 6.3% is really an 8th grade result.
Two things soften, but do not erase, that picture. The 8th grade weakness is partly local — the district's own 8th graders score 9.7% in math and 5.9% in science, so the school is not out of step with its neighbors at that grade. Also, with about 37 students per grade, a single student equals roughly 2.7 percentage points, though a 23-point gap to the state represents about eight students, beyond simple noise. In context, 66.36% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, spending is $18,196 per student at a 17:1 student-teacher ratio, and chronic absenteeism is 31.1%, slightly better than the state's 33.5%. The school ranks 270th of 371 (27th percentile, 1 star), up from the 16th percentile last year but below its 39th-percentile mark two years ago.
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