2024 · SchoolDecoder annual report

2024 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Schools Report

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA · spans OR & WA

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA’s school rankings change when you account for context. Some schools with modest raw scores move sharply up the list once socioeconomic factors are considered. Others still rank highly on achievement, but look closer to expected when compared with schools serving similar communities. That does not make one group “good” and the other “bad.” It means raw test scores are doing two jobs at once: measuring academic performance and reflecting neighborhood advantage.

View the full Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA rankings

Key findings

What the 2024 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA data shows

  • 454

    Schools ranked

  • 38

    Outperforming Expectations

  • 68

    Strong by Both Measures

  • 35

    High Scores, Context Matters

How to read this chart

  • Each dot is a school.
  • The line shows expected performance based on socioeconomic context.
  • Schools above the line are outperforming expectations.
  • Schools below the line are underperforming relative to similar contexts.

Larger dots have more enrollment. Color shows the size of the context-adjusted effect (School Alpha). Hover or tap a dot for the school’s name and both ranks.

Below expectations Near expected Outperforming Showing all 454 ranked schools. Dot size scales with enrollment. The dashed line is expected performance for a school of that socioeconomic context.

Tier distribution

How 454 schools fall into tiers

  • 23★★★ Exceptional (Top 5%)
  • 46★★ Outperforming Expectations (Top 15%)
  • 68★ Above Expected (Top 30%)
  • 181Performing as Expected (Middle 40%)
  • 68Below Expected (Bottom 30%)
  • 68Lower Performance (Bottom 15%)

Notable schools

Where the data tells a clear story

  1. Highest decoded rank

    Westridge Elementary School

    Achievement #1 · Decoded #1

    places from achievement to Decoded Rank

    Raw scores are strong here, and the school still performs above expected for its context.

  2. Biggest move up after context

    Mill Park Elementary School

    Achievement #383 · Decoded #66

    places from achievement to Decoded Rank

    This school's raw scores understate its performance — it ranks much higher after adjusting for context.

  3. Biggest move down after context

    Irvington Elementary School

    Achievement #93 · Decoded #374

    places from achievement to Decoded Rank

    Raw scores are high, but decoded performance is closer to expected for the school's context.

  4. Highest raw achievement

    Westridge Elementary School

    Achievement #1 · Decoded #1

    places from achievement to Decoded Rank

    Raw scores are strong here, and the school still performs above expected for its context.

District patterns

How districts compare

District-level summaries arrive with the full report. Until then, view individual district pages.

Methodology summary

How these rankings were calculated

SchoolDecoder asks a simple question: how did students perform compared with what we would expect given the school’s context? We standardize school-level mean scale scores within each state, grade, subject, and year, then predict expected performance from a blended socioeconomic index built on Census ACS 5-year data, NCES enrollment and demographics, and state-published economically disadvantaged measures. Decoded Rank is the residual after that adjustment, with shrinkage applied so smaller schools don’t produce wild rankings on noise.

For the full technical treatment, see the SchoolDecoder methodology page.

Data limitations

What this report cannot answer

Decoded Rank is a residual, not a causal estimate. A high decoded rank is consistent with strong school effect; it cannot prove a school caused better student outcomes. Neighborhood SES is estimated from school location and public enrollment data — it may not fully represent where enrolled students live, especially for choice, magnet, charter, or boundary-exception schools.

Confidence is lower for smaller schools because fewer students were tested. We show confidence bands and call out small-school noise instead of pretending false precision. For more, see limitations.

Download & share

Share these freely. Cite SchoolDecoder and link back to this report.

Data & sources

Assessment data
2023–24 school year
NCES CCD vintage
2023
Census ACS 5-year vintage
2020-2024
Last updated
May 29, 2026
Methodology version
0.2.0

Cross-state metro note: The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro spans OR and WA. Both states use Smarter Balanced assessments for grades 3–8 with a common scale; context-adjusted scores are computed within each state’s testing context, then ranked across the full metro.

SchoolDecoder publishes context-adjusted residuals, not causal estimates. Decoded Rank is one signal — not a verdict on teaching quality. Read about limitations →