Summary:
ZIP code 97306 contains six public schools — five elementary schools and one middle school — all part of Salem-Keizer School District 24J. The list covers grades K-8 only; no high school appears here, so older students attend schools outside this area. Together these schools enroll 2,905 students, with 2,101 in elementary grades and 804 in middle school. Poverty is high across the entire area, with free and reduced-price lunch rates ranging from 87.8% to 89.2%. The district as a whole ranks 105th of 141 in Oregon, at the 26th percentile with a 1-star rating, yet performance within 97306 varies widely.
Sumpter Elementary is the strongest school in the area: 68th percentile and 3 stars, with the highest elementary test scores, the lowest chronic absenteeism at 24.7% — below both the district (43.1%) and state (33.5%) — and three straight years of improvement. Crossler Middle School is also a 3-star school, at the 58th percentile and improving, with math at 33.5%, above the state's 32.9%, and 8th-grade ELA at 47.6%. Battle Creek Elementary, the most improved, moved from the 20th to the 37th percentile and reached 2 stars, with ELA at 42.5%, close to the state's 43.8%.
Three schools need attention. Pringle Elementary is the lowest performer, at the 13th percentile with 1 star, declining from the 38th percentile over three years, and is the only school here below the district in all three subjects. Liberty Elementary sits around the 30th percentile with 1 star, and Lee Elementary, the smallest school with the highest spending at $22,059, has the lowest science score at 13.7%. Science is the area's most consistent weakness: every school falls below the state's 30.6% all-grade science rate, and elementary science averages just 19.4%.
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