Kings Valley Charter School, Philomath OR

Original Research by School Decision on Kings Valley Charter School

Kings Valley Charter School is a regular public school for kindergarten through twelfth grade serving a small enrollment of students from the Philomath area and the surrounding Kings Valley community. As a charter school, it operates within the Philomath School District 17J but functions independently. The school is located on Kings Valley Highway, a rural road west of Philomath that winds through the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. Philomath itself is a small Willamette Valley town that has shifted since the 1980s from a timber and mill center into a bedroom community for people employed in nearby Corvallis, and the charter school draws from that same rural-to-suburban landscape.

The student body is predominantly white, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school covers every grade from kindergarten through high school, though the high school grades are thin at the upper end. The enrollment numbers show a steady drop from the early elementary years through the middle grades, with a particularly small senior class. This shape suggests that some families leave after a certain point, though it may also reflect the overall small pool of students in a rural catchment area.

State testing results for the most recent academic year provide a mixed picture across subjects and grade levels. In English language arts, the school’s fifth-grade cohort performed well, with a strong share of students meeting proficiency. Other grade levels in ELA, particularly fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, showed lower proficiency rates. In math, no single grade level posted results that would be considered strong; the proportions meeting the bar were consistently modest across all tested grades. Science scores at the elementary and middle school levels also fell short of a majority target. Taken together, these numbers place the school’s overall proficiency index above the midpoint relative to other districts in Benton County, a fact that may reflect a relatively narrow spread among the county’s small number of districts rather than a particularly high performance level. The test result data is limited to a single year, so there is no multi-year trend available to show whether performance is improving or declining.

The school operates as a charter, and that structure is the central fact of its identity. Charter status means it has more flexibility in curriculum and operations than a traditional district school, and by the nature of the model, it expects a degree of family commitment and choice. For a rural community with limited school options, Kings Valley Charter provides a kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade continuum under one roof, which can be appealing to families who want their children in a single small school from start to finish. The elementary and middle school grade bands, while small, are more populated than the high school grades, and a parent considering the upper grades should engage directly with the school about the course offerings, extracurriculars, and postsecondary planning available to a small cohort of students. No information on advanced coursework, career and technical programs, or dual-credit opportunities was found in the available data.

The school’s setting is distinctly rural, located on the highway several miles from Philomath’s town center. Philomath itself is a compact city of modest size with a small downtown, parks along the Marys River, and a historical museum housed in the former Philomath College building. Housing values in the area are in line with national benchmarks, and the region has seen growth as commuters move outward from Corvallis. The Philomath School District recently had no major publicly reported changes that would directly affect this charter school.

A parent reading these test results will find a school where academic performance is uneven and generally below state expectations in most tested subjects and grades, with a notable bright spot in fifth-grade ELA. The school is small and rural, serving a community that has undergone economic transition, and its charter structure gives it operational independence within the larger district. Families considering Kings Valley Charter should visit the campus, talk to staff about the curriculum and the high school experience specifically, and weigh whether its scale and setting match their child’s needs.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=50%Cohort of 13 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

326 schools plotted. 10 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 45% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 43% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 34% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 26% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 32% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 44% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 50% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 58% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 40% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 43% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 824%

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

▼ 17 pts below state median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 40% · ▼ 11 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 38% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median

This schoolPhilomath SD 17J, 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.