The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Gresham Arthur Academy
Gresham Arthur Academy is a public charter school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Gresham, Oregon. It belongs to the Gresham-Barlow School District, though as a charter it operates with its own identity. The school is small and sits in a city where families choose among three separate school districts and a range of high schools spread across different neighborhoods. Gresham’s historic downtown and its branch library anchor the civic core, but school life here is decentralized, and this charter elementary reflects that independent character.
The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic presence and smaller shares of students who identify as two or more races, Black, or Asian. Just under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that signals a moderate level of economic diversity. The school has a balanced grade-by-grade enrollment, with similar class sizes from kindergarten through third grade and slightly smaller groups in fourth and fifth grades. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available; a parent who needs those specifics should ask the school directly.
Academically, Gresham Arthur Academy posts results that place it well above the midpoint relative to other districts in Multnomah County. The school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects falls in the top quartile of that comparison set. Reading and writing scores are particularly strong. The strongest performance comes in fifth-grade English language arts, where the large majority of students meet the state bar, and third-grade results in that subject are also high. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a solid majority proficient. Math presents a more uneven picture. Third-grade math is comfortably above half proficient, and fifth-grade math is in the same range, but fourth-grade math drops markedly, with only about three in ten students scoring proficient. Because the state testing data covers only a single year, there is no trend to examine; a family might ask the school how it addresses the drop in fourth-grade math and whether that pattern has persisted in prior years. The school serves only elementary grades, so no graduation rate applies here.
Gresham Arthur Academy operates as a regular public school with a charter status, meaning it has some autonomy from the district while still publicly funded. The school’s website and public materials were not included in the available data, so details on its specific educational model or pedagogical approach are not captured here. Gresham’s housing market shows home values slightly below the statewide benchmark and rental costs that take up roughly a quarter of a typical household’s income, a level that is manageable for many but still reflects the region’s broader affordability strain. The district itself did not yield publicly reported strategic changes or recent initiatives, so the school’s direction is best understood through its own communications and test results.
For a parent considering this school, the picture is one of a small charter elementary with clear academic strengths in literacy and a math performance that warrants a closer look at the transition between third and fourth grades. The school serves a diverse but majority-white student body in a city where secondary options branch across multiple districts, so the elementary years here feed into the Gresham-Barlow system for middle and high school. This is a school where the reading results are a draw, the math pattern asks for follow-up, and the charter structure gives it a distinct feel within the larger district landscape.
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