The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Central Elementary School
Central Elementary School in Albany, Oregon, serves third through fifth grade. It is a regular public school in the Greater Albany Public SD 8J district. The school is small, enrolling roughly a single cohort per grade, and it draws a student body that is predominantly white with a substantial share of Hispanic students and a smaller share of students who identify as two or more races. A large majority of students at Central qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need.
Academically, Central’s state test results present a mixed picture. The school’s overall proficiency, averaged across all tested subjects and grades, ranks in the top quartile among the eight districts in Linn County. That top-quartile position is notable, but it is worth understanding the underlying numbers, which the school’s data makes available by grade and subject. In math, proficiency rates trend downward as students advance: the third grade posts a stronger result, while fourth grade drops, and fifth grade is lower still. In English language arts, the same pattern appears, with third graders performing at a meaningfully higher level than fourth or fifth graders. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a proficiency rate in the same range as the lower fifth-grade math and English results. A parent considering Central may want to discuss with the school how it supports academic growth from third through fifth grade, particularly in math, where the drop across the grades is most pronounced. The available testing data covers a single school year, so there is no trend line yet to tell whether these patterns are long-standing or reflect a particular cohort.
The school’s enrollment is roughly balanced across the three grades, with no single grade dominating the size. Information on the share of students receiving special education services or identified as English learners was not available in the data, which is a gap a prospective parent may wish to fill by asking the school directly. The school does not appear to offer any specialized magnet programs, and its Title I status was not provided.
Albany itself is a city with a farming and manufacturing history. Its downtown is a National Historic District, with antique shops, restaurants, and the Albany Civic Theater, and the city has invested in reviving that shopping area. Major employers include a specialty metals producer, a freeze-dry manufacturer, a federal research center, and local government. The city has seen a decline in the timber industry and some manufacturing job loss, but also efforts to introduce green technology businesses. The school district, Greater Albany Public SD 8J, did not have any recent major changes publicly reported that would affect a family’s decision.
The housing market in the area near the school shows home values that are roughly in line with the state benchmark, and rents that are slightly below the estimated monthly mortgage cost for a median-priced home. The neighborhood around Central Elementary, located on 9th Avenue SW in Albany, is a mix of residential and commercial areas typical of the city.
For a family thinking about Central Elementary, the main considerations are its small size, its high level of economic need, and its academic profile, which shows stronger early-grade results and a decline by fifth grade. A parent may want to understand how the school addresses that drop-off and what support is available for students who arrive below grade level. The school’s top-quartile standing within Linn County on an overall proficiency index offers context for its performance relative to nearby districts, but the internal grade-level pattern is the more instructive detail for deciding whether the school’s approach matches a child’s needs.
See more original research from School Decision →