The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on St Paul High School
St. Paul High School is the only secondary school in the two-school St. Paul School District 45, a tiny public system serving a rural farming community on French Prairie in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The school covers seventh through twelfth grade, which makes its student body a mix of middle schoolers and high schoolers on one campus. The enrollment is small, and the community is smaller still: a compact town of fewer than five hundred residents, surrounded by farmland producing grapes, hazelnuts, grass seed, peppermint, and hops.
The student body is composed of roughly equal shares of white students and Hispanic students, along with a handful of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a few multiracial students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not available, and neither were counts for students receiving special education services or English learner support. A parent will want to ask the school directly about the extent of those programs and supports.
The school’s academic performance is a mixed picture. In math, proficiency rates for both seventh and eighth graders sit near the middle of the pack, with about half of students meeting the state standard. In English language arts, seventh graders show a stronger result, with roughly two-thirds proficient, while eighth graders come in at just over half. Science results are a clear soft spot: about a quarter of tested eighth graders reached the proficiency bar. When looking across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Marion County, meaning it performs relatively well compared to its neighbors in the county. That is a meaningful strength in context, though the absolute numbers, particularly in science, are modest.
No graduation rate data was available for this school, so we cannot report on how many students finish in four years. A parent may want to ask the school for its graduation rates and postsecondary outcomes. Likewise, the data does not include any information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, or staffing ratios, which limits the picture of daily school life and student support.
The district approved a bond measure in 2021 authorizing capital improvements across its two schools. That means a tax obligation tied to the bond is in place for district residents, applied to assessed property values, and will remain for a defined term. A family buying a home in the district should factor that into their housing costs.
Housing values in the area are elevated relative to the national median, consistent with much of the Willamette Valley. The overall economic context shows a national mortgage rate that has fluctuated in a narrow band and a modest national unemployment rate. The town itself is quiet and residential, anchored by a historic district and a Catholic church, with its biggest annual event being a major rodeo each July. There is no public library, no public park, and no transit service mentioned in available sources; for most amenities, residents drive to nearby Woodburn or Newberg. Growth has been modest to flat over the past decade, and the town has not expanded its footprint.
St. Paul High School fits a family looking for a very small secondary school in a rural, agricultural setting where students spend their entire middle and high school years in one building. The academic picture is strongest in seventh-grade English language arts, and the school’s overall proficiency ranks favorably within the county, but science achievement is an area where a parent would want to understand the curriculum and support available. The limited data on student support programs and complete lack of graduation rate information mean a prospective parent should plan to visit and ask detailed questions about how the school serves students across the grade span, especially at the high school end.
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