Butte Valley Elementary, Dorris CA

Original Research by School Decision on Butte Valley Elementary

Butte Valley Elementary sits on West Third Street in Dorris, a very small rural city in the Butte Valley of northern Siskiyou County, tucked between Mount Shasta and the Oregon border along U.S. Route 97. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade and shares its address with Butte Valley High School, placing education, the county library branch, and a community health center all along the same short Third Street corridor a few blocks from downtown. That concentration of services matters in a place this remote, where car dependence is the norm and regional amenities require a drive.

The community itself is shaped by agriculture and ranching. Hay, grain, livestock, and a commercial strawberry-plant industry are the economic anchors, alongside wood milling and local government employment including the school district itself. Dorris has been on a gradual population decline for years, and the housing stock is old, with the vast majority of units being detached single-family homes and mobile homes built well before recent decades. Home prices here sit far below the California state median and even below the national median, making the area one of the more affordable entry points in the state. Rents are modest as well, and year-over-year movement in both has been slight. For a family weighing a move, the cost picture is accessible, though employment options within the valley are limited.

Enrollment at Butte Valley Elementary is small, distributed roughly evenly across grades from kindergarten through eighth. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic realities of the surrounding community. Hispanic students make up the largest share of enrollment, with white students and students of two or more races also representing meaningful portions of the school. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the records we reviewed.

On the California state assessments, proficiency rates in both English language arts and math are low across every tested grade. In math, the results are particularly thin, with several grades showing only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency and the eighth-grade result near zero. ELA results are somewhat higher but still fall well short of the state midpoint at every grade. Science results at the fifth and eighth grade levels follow a similar pattern. Placed against districts in Siskiyou County, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile of that group. These are candid numbers, and a parent would reasonably want to talk directly with the school about classroom instruction, intervention supports, and what the school is doing to move them. The social studies data available predates the current assessment system by more than a decade and does not reflect current conditions.

Because only one year of current assessment data was available, there is no trend line to assess whether results have been rising, holding, or falling. That gap means it is not possible to say whether the school is making progress.

No data was available on chronic absenteeism or discipline rates. The graduation rate measure does not apply here since the school ends at eighth grade; students continue to Butte Valley High School on the same campus.

We looked into district-level changes, bond measures, and curriculum shifts that might signal new investments or directions at Butte Valley Unified, and found little of note. The district appears stable but without publicly reported recent initiatives to share with families.

For a family already living in the Butte Valley, Butte Valley Elementary is the local public option from kindergarten through middle school, and its co-location with the high school and community services on one campus has a practical logic in a place this size. The academic results as reported are a real concern, and a parent who cares closely about tested proficiency would want to go beyond these numbers and speak with teachers and staff about day-to-day learning conditions.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 8%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

This schoolButte Valley Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.