Summary:
Zip code 97862 covers Milton-Freewater, Oregon, and is served by four public schools in the Milton-Freewater Unified School District 7 — two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school — enrolling 1,547 students combined, with elementary students making up about 47.7% of that total. All four schools are high-poverty by the free/reduced-lunch measure, ranging from 71.69% to 84.58%.
McLoughlin High School is the academic bright spot: its 97.0% graduation rate is 14 points above the 83.0% state average, and its rank climbed from the 11th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 32nd percentile in 2025–2026, rising from 1 star to 2 stars. Yet its chronic absenteeism is 47.6%, the highest locally and far above the 33.5% state rate. Gib Olinger Elementary School posts all-grades math proficiency of 35.9%, above the state all-grades figure of 32.9%, though its 3rd-grade math (35.9%) still trails the state's 3rd-grade rate of 41.3%. Ferndale Elementary School has the lowest absenteeism at 28.0% along with the highest poverty (84.58%) and highest spending ($20,571 per student).
Central Middle School is the biggest concern: it ranks 353 out of 371 (5th percentile, 0 stars), with ELA at 14.8% against 43.8% statewide, math at 10.1% against 32.9%, and science at 14.3% against 30.6%; its 8th-grade math is 5.6% versus the state's 30.0%. No school here matches the state ELA average. Elementary schools spend roughly $2,800 more per student than the middle and high schools, and McLoughlin has the largest classes, at 18.5 students per teacher.
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