Summary:
Zip code 97836 in Morrow County is home to two public schools — Heppner Elementary School (grades K–6, 185 students) and Heppner Junior/Senior High School (grades 7–12, 171 students) — both part of Morrow School District 1. Together they serve 356 students in a small, rural district, with no separate middle school and no alternative school listed.
Both schools outperform their district, which itself ranks 48th percentile with 2 stars. Heppner Junior/Senior High is the standout: 84th percentile and 4 stars statewide (ranked 43 of 271), a 100% graduation rate versus 96.7% for the district and 83.0% for Oregon, and all-grade ELA at 65.9% and science at 53.1% proficient — far above district and state. Its math (30.7%) beats the district's 23.5% but trails the state's 32.9%. Heppner Elementary also beats district averages in every subject, with all-grade ELA at 47.7%, math at 41.1%, and science at 43.5%. Its brightest spots are 6th grade ELA (67.7%), 6th grade math (45.2%), and 5th grade science (43.5%), while 3rd grade ELA (34.6%), 4th grade ELA (37.0%), and 5th grade math (26.1%) fall below state averages. Elementary rank has slipped from 73rd to 65th percentile over three years, moving from 4 stars to 3.
Attendance is a clear strength: chronic absenteeism is 23.0% at the elementary school and 22.5% at the junior/senior high, roughly 10–13 points below the district (35.4%) and state (33.5%), even with about 67% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The high school spends more per student ($28,115 vs. $20,372) and has a slightly smaller student-teacher ratio (14.2 vs. 15.4). With such small enrollments, year-to-year results can shift noticeably.
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