Summary:
ZIP code 97202, covering the Sellwood neighborhood of southeast Portland, is served by a single middle school: Sellwood Middle School, which enrolls 575 students in grades 6–8 as part of Portland School District 1J. Because it is the only middle school in the area, there are no local peers to compare it against — the meaningful benchmarks are its own district and the state of Oregon.
By those measures, Sellwood is an elite performer. It ranked 8th out of 371 Oregon middle schools in 2025–2026, placing it in the 98th percentile with a 5-star rating — its third consecutive 5-star year, up from 23rd two years earlier. In English language arts, 77.9% of students met standards, versus 57.8% in the district and 43.8% statewide. In math, 71.2% met standards against 50.5% district and 32.9% state. Science came in at 54.6%, ahead of the district's 45.1% and the state's 30.6%, though by a narrower margin. Seventh grade was the academic peak, with 83.8% proficiency in ELA and 76.1% in math; both subjects dip in 8th grade.
Chronic absenteeism runs 24.8%, well below the district's 32.5% and the state's 33.5% — a genuine strength, but still about one in four students. About 41.74% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and per-student spending is $21,419 with a 20:1 student-teacher ratio, though no district or state benchmarks are available for those figures. The clearest opportunities for further gain are science, which trails the school's own reading and math results, and 8th-grade performance, along with continued work on attendance.
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