The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Ferguson Elementary School
Ferguson Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Klamath Falls, Oregon, as part of the Klamath County School District. The school sits on the city's south side, in a mixed residential and commercial part of town not far from the main route out of Klamath Falls toward the Klamath Basin agricultural lands. The school is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation.
The student body represents a significant range of backgrounds. The largest racial group is white students, followed by a substantial share of Hispanic students. The remaining enrollment includes students who identify as two or more races, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a high-poverty context. Enrollment numbers are stable across the elementary grade levels, with each grade showing similar class section sizes.
On state assessments, Ferguson Elementary shows a pattern of mixed performance. In English language arts, third graders posted the highest proficiency rate, followed closely by fifth and sixth graders, who also performed above a simple majority threshold. Fourth grade results in English fell below that level. In math, third graders were the strongest grade, with a rate above half, while the other three tested grades all came in well below half, with fourth grade seeing the lowest result. Science is tested only in fifth grade, and that proficiency rate was below a quarter of students. The school’s overall proficiency across all subjects and grades places it at the higher end when compared with the other district in Klamath County, but since the county has only two school districts, that comparison is narrow. The data represents the first available year of testing, so there is no prior trend to assess improvement or decline.
The school environment data is partial. Information on discipline incidents, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, and course access was not available. Similarly, data on students with individualized education plans and English learners was not reported. For a parent wanting to understand how the school supports students with special needs or language services, this would be a question to take directly to the school.
Klamath Falls itself is the county seat and home to the Oregon Institute of Technology and Klamath Community College. Its economy has shifted from its historical reliance on logging to a mix of healthcare, education, manufacturing, and government employment. Major local employers include Sky Lakes Medical Center, Collins Products, JELD-WEN, and the Air National Guard base. The downtown area has a historic walking tour and a trolley, and the city has a geothermal district heating system that also provides snowmelt for downtown sidewalks. Recent development has brought new housing subdivisions and businesses to the area. Housing costs in the zip code cluster near the school are below the Oregon state median and close to the national median. Rents suggest a modestly affordable market relative to local wages, but the gap between renting and buying a home is narrow, meaning ownership may be accessible to many households here.
At the district level, the Klamath County School District passed a capital construction bond in 2023 that funds safety upgrades, roof replacements, HVAC work, and classroom additions at various schools, along with a new career-technical education facility at a junior-senior high school elsewhere in the district. The district also expanded its CTE pathways across its high schools, adding programs in health sciences, manufacturing, and agriculture. These district-level investments do not directly affect Ferguson Elementary’s current program, since it serves only elementary grades, but they signal a broader district commitment to vocational readiness by the time students reach high school.
For a family considering Ferguson Elementary, the takeaway is a school with a large share of students from lower-income households, enrollment that is predominantly white with a substantial Hispanic minority, and academic results that vary noticeably by grade and subject. The school’s strongest showing is in early elementary English and third-grade math, while fourth-grade math and fifth-grade science are areas where proficiency is low. The surrounding community offers modest housing costs, a growing local economy, and access to two-year and four-year higher education institutions. The district’s recent bond and CTE expansion may eventually factor into a family’s longer-term planning for middle and high school, but at the elementary level, the most relevant details are what happens inside the classroom and how the school addresses the academic gaps visible in the test data.
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