Summary:
ZIP code 97437 covers Elmira, Oregon, and contains exactly one middle school: Fern Ridge Middle School, at 88831 Territorial Rd, serving grades 6–8 with 315 students. It is the only middle school in Fern Ridge School District 28J. Because there is just one school here, there is no in-town comparison — the useful benchmarks are the district and the state. Statewide, the school ranks 166th of 371 Oregon middle schools (55th percentile, 3 stars) for 2025‑2026.
Academically, the school is above the Oregon average in English Language Arts (44.6% proficient vs. 43.8%) and Science (32.7% vs. 30.6%), but below it in Math (27.4% vs. 32.9%). The grade-by-grade picture matters: 7th-grade ELA (50.0%) and 8th-grade ELA (47.6%) both beat the state, while 6th-grade ELA (36.9%) trails it. Math is the clear weak spot — 26.7% in 6th grade, 36.0% in 7th, and only 21.0% in 8th, which is 9 points below the state's 30.0%. Notably, that same 8th-grade group posts the school's best reading results and solid science scores, so the trouble looks specific to 8th-grade math rather than a weak class overall.
Attendance is a genuine strength: 29.9% of students are chronically absent, better than the district (31.6%) and the state (33.5%), even though 71.43% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch — though nearly 3 in 10 students still miss school chronically. The school has improved steadily, moving from 46th percentile (2 stars) in 2023‑2024 to 52nd, then 55th (3 stars), a gain of 9 percentile points. Per-student spending is $17,462 with a 17.5:1 student–teacher ratio, though no state or district benchmarks are available for those figures. Keep in mind the district's 4-star rating is stronger than the school's 3 stars; for a middle-schooler, the school-level number is the more relevant one.
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