Original Research by School Decision on Estacada High School
Estacada High School is a regular public high school in the Estacada School District, serving grades nine through twelve. It is located within the city of Estacada, a small city about thirty miles southeast of Portland on the Clackamas River at the edge of the Mount Hood National Forest. Estacada began as a camp for workers building a hydroelectric dam and later became a logging hub. The timber industry no longer dominates but remains present, and the area is also known for Christmas tree farming. The city has a downtown with retail and office space, a cluster of metal fabrication companies, and a growing arts community. Outside the city limits, the surrounding land is mainly farmland. Estacada has been one of Oregon's fastest-growing small cities, with population growth in recent years driven by both residential expansion and industrial development. The schools and civic institutions are placed within the small city fabric rather than on separated campuses.
The high school serves an enrollment that is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic share and small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
State testing data provides a single year of results. In English language arts, roughly half of students met proficiency standards. In math, proficiency was markedly lower, with fewer than one in five students meeting the bar. In science, about three in ten students met proficiency standards. This is the only year of data available, so no trend can be established. A parent may want to ask the school about how these results compare to prior years and what the school is doing to address the gaps, particularly in math, where outcomes are much weaker than in reading. The school’s graduation rate was not available in the data provided. For the same reason, the school could not be compared to other high schools in Clackamas County on proficiency or graduation.
A major investment in the school is underway. In 2024, voters passed a general obligation bond that funds a complete renovation of the high school. Portions of the building date to the 1960s, and the work includes modernizing science labs, replacing HVAC systems, and upgrading ADA accessibility, along with safety and security improvements district-wide. Phased construction is set to begin in summer 2025. Property taxes will increase over the life of the bond.
No program offerings were listed in the data, so what the school offers in terms of Advanced Placement, career and technical education, dual credit, athletics, or the arts is not covered here. A parent looking for that information would need to look at the school’s website or contact the school directly.
The student body is roughly the size of a mid-sized high school, with the grade-level groups comparable in number. Staffing data, discipline data, chronic absenteeism, and attendance information were not available in the data provided, so the picture of the school environment and student support is incomplete.
For a family considering Estacada, the school sits in a community that is small-town and rural in feel but within commuting distance of the Portland metro area. The school itself is the subject of a major renovation, which points to a district investing in its facilities. The academic results show a clear split: reading and writing proficiency is around the midpoint, while math proficiency is well below that. The lack of trend data and absences in other key metrics make it hard to get a full picture of progression and school climate. This combination may suit a family that values the rural setting and upcoming facility upgrades and is comfortable following up with the school directly on the academic support and program questions that the data leaves open.
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