Butternut Creek Elementary School, Aloha OR

Original Research by School Decision on Butternut Creek Elementary School

Butternut Creek Elementary School serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade in the Aloha area of Washington County, Oregon, as part of the Hillsboro School District. Aloha is an unincorporated community, a residential suburb between Beaverton and Hillsboro, without a municipal government or a walkable downtown. Its commercial life is spread along major roads in strip malls, and the community library operates out of one such shopping center. The area has grown substantially over decades as part of the Portland metro area’s westward expansion, with development managed by county land-use policies rather than a city plan.

Butternut Creek is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. Its enrollment is moderate for its grade band. A substantial share of students come from households with low enough incomes to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a significant Hispanic presence and smaller shares of students who are two or more races, Asian, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on the shares of students receiving special education services or classified as English learners was not reported.

The school’s state assessment results from the most recent testing year show a pattern of low proficiency rates that becomes more mixed at the upper grade levels. In math, the share of students meeting the state standard was well below the state median in third, fourth, and fifth grades, but rose to a meaningfully higher level in sixth grade. In English language arts, the pattern was similar: third and fourth grade results were low, fifth grade was somewhat higher, and sixth grade saw a majority of students reaching proficiency. Fifth grade science results were low. The school’s overall proficiency index, calculated as the average rate across all tested subjects and grades, places Butternut Creek in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Washington County. Only a single year of data was available for trend analysis, so it is not possible from that source to see whether performance is moving up or down over time.

Because Butternut Creek serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school operates within a district that has completed several major capital projects from a voter-approved bond, including the opening of a new elementary school and the replacement of an older building, which modernized facilities and added capacity across the district.

The housing market in the area carries values that are above the national median home price but slightly below the Oregon state benchmark. Rents are substantial, and the gap between renting and buying means that for many families, monthly costs are higher for ownership than for renting. The local unemployment rate and median household income are both near the national averages.

For a parent or resident, Butternut Creek offers a conventional elementary experience in a growing suburban setting. The student body includes a notable share of families with economic need, which may mean the school receives Title I resources, but that status was not confirmed. The academic results suggest that many students in the early and middle elementary grades are not yet meeting state benchmarks in reading and math, though sixth graders perform notably better, particularly in English language arts. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports students who are below grade level, what programs are in place for the large share of children from lower-income households, and how achievement at the upper elementary grades compares with the middle schools these students will feed into. The lack of multi-year testing data makes it hard to know whether current results represent a new baseline or an ongoing trend.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 39% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 35% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 27% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 29% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 37% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 39% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 41% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 44% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 27% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

This schoolHillsboro SD 1J, 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.