Summary:
ZIP code 97351 covers Independence, Oregon, and contains just one public high school: Central High School, which serves grades 9–12 with 1,008 students and belongs to Central School District 13J. Because it is the only high school in the area, there is no local peer school to compare it with.
The school carries a 1-star rating in every year on record, and Central School District 13J is also rated 1 star, ranking 120 of 141 districts, or the 15th percentile. Central High ranked 235 of 268 schools (12th percentile) in 2023–2024, 243 of 270 (10th percentile) in 2024–2025, and 218 of 271 (20th percentile) in 2025–2026 — real upward movement, but still within the bottom fifth of schools. Graduation stands at 77.3%, below the state's 83.0%, and chronic absenteeism is 37.9%, above the state's 33.5%, meaning more than a third of students miss enough school to be chronically absent. Economic need is very high, with 94.25% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Per-student spending is $19,907 and the student-teacher ratio is 21.5; the data set provides no state averages for those two figures, so they cannot be benchmarked here.
Academically, the school's clearest pattern is a sharp split by subject. English language arts proficiency is 42.9%, only 0.9 points below the state's 43.8%, and 11th-grade ELA is 42.9% against 46.0% statewide — close to average. Math is dramatically lower: 7.0% proficient compared with 32.9% statewide, a 25.9-point gap. Science is 13.1% versus 30.6% statewide, a 17.5-point gap. For this school, the all-grades and 11th-grade results match exactly in all three subjects, consistent with grade 11 being its tested grade. The takeaway for families is a school whose reading results roughly track the state while math and science lag far behind, alongside completion and attendance rates that fall on the wrong side of state averages.
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