Creston Elementary School

Portland, OR · Grades K–5

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Neighborhood

Decoded Rank

All factors combined

Top 15% decoded

#44 of 430

plausibly #25–114

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA schools

★★ Outperforming Expectations

#69 in OR

Achievement Rank

Raw test performance

Top 30% achievement

#70 of 430

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA schools

#78 in OR

places from achievement to Decoded Rank

Students score highly, and the school still stands out after accounting for context — students also tend to gain ground while enrolled.

Data confidence:High252 students tested 7 years97% participation

Confidence is computed from sample size, year coverage, and participation rate. Higher confidence means the rank shift is stable across years and not driven by a single small cohort.

  • Tested students: total students with valid scores across all reported years.
  • Years of data: number of school years included. More years smooths year-to-year noise.
  • Participation: share of enrolled students who took the assessment. Low participation can bias scores.

What's driving this rank

Decoded Rank: #44 of 430

in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA schools

Raw test scores rank this school #70, but after accounting for context, students here outperform what the data would predict. The Decoded Rank places it at #44.

Each component below is scored on a 0–100 within-metro scale. A qualitative band summarizes where the school lands.

  • StrongPerforms above what its context predictsCounts for 35% of the rank

    After accounting for income and demographics, does this school beat what the data would predict?

  • StrongStudents gain ground year over yearCounts for 30% of the rank

    Are kids at this school learning faster than typical for the metro?

  • LowEquity within the schoolCounts for 15% of the rank

    Are students clustered at similar levels, or split between top and bottom?

  • About averageDirection over recent yearsCounts for 10% of the rank

    Is this school's Decoded Rank trending up or down across the years we have data for?

  • StrongMost students were testedCounts for 10% of the rank

    Was the rank computed against a representative share of the school's students?

Show the numbersFor the methodology-curious

Each component is converted to a 0–100 within-metro percentile (100 = top of the metro). "Contribution" is the percentile-points the component adds to (or subtracts from) the metro median before the schools are re-ranked into the composite.

Per-component contributions to this school's Decoded Rank composite. Weight is the share each component carries; percentile is the school's within-metro score on that component.
ComponentWeightPercentileContribution
Performs above what its context predicts 35%98+16.8
Students gain ground year over year 30%90+11.9
Equity within the school 15%7-6.5
Direction over recent years 10%50+0.0
Most students were tested 10%97+4.7

How the Decoded Rank composite is computed

Why trust this?
  • Public data sources
  • Context-adjusted model
  • Confidence shown
  • Methodology published

This score uses state assessment data, NCES enrollment data, and Census ACS 5-year neighborhood data. The Decoded Rank adjusts for school context — student demographics, ELL/SPED service rates, and the socioeconomic profile of the surrounding tract — and shows how the school performs relative to expectation, not in absolute terms.

SchoolDecoder is one signal, not a verdict. Decoded Rank is a context-adjusted residual, not a causal claim about teaching quality. See full methodology →

All Rankings

How this school ranks across the metro, state, and among demographic peers.

ScopeAchievementDecodedShift
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (430 schools)#70#44
OR (667 schools)#78#69
Among similar schools (6 peers)#2#2

Resource context

School inputs, not ranking points

These fields describe the school and surrounding neighborhood. They help readers interpret the page, but this is not a dollar-by-dollar or ratio-by-ratio scorecard and the fields here are not components of the Decoded Rank.

Enrollment
238
Free/reduced-price lunch
77.7%
Student-teacher ratio
15.9:1
Locale
City, large
School type
Regular public school
Enrollment model
Neighborhood attendance area
Neighborhood median income
$93,116ACS tract proxy
Neighborhood poverty
0.1%ACS tract proxy
SES index
48.7
Assessment data year
2024
CCD year
2023
ACS vintage
2020-2024

Within Portland SD 1J: #14 of 70.Top quintile in district. View district

Performance Spread

How students are distributed across the four state-assessment proficiency levels — L1: below standard, L2: approaching, L3: meets (proficient), L4: exceeds. This describes the shape of results at the school, not their height.

Two distinct groups are visible: a strong cluster at the top and a struggling cluster at the bottom.

  • Level 1 — Below standard21%
  • Level 2 — Approaching standard20%
  • Level 3 — Meets standard (proficient)23%
  • Level 4 — Exceeds standard37%

Why this matters. A bimodal distribution often reflects two student populations served side-by-side (for example a gifted or honors track alongside a general-population cohort). Aggregate scores can hide this. Look at the school's program mix when comparing.

Performance Spread measures how evenly students are distributed across the L1..L4 proficiency ladder, treating the levels as an ordered scale (L1=1, L2=2, L3=3, L4=4) and weighting each by its student share. A school where most students cluster at one level has a TIGHT spread; a school split between the bottom and top has a WIDE or BIMODAL spread. Bimodal fires only when BOTH tails are non-trivial AND the middle is relatively hollow (pct_L1 ≥ 15, pct_L4 ≥ 25, pct_L2 + pct_L3 ≤ 60). It describes shape — NOT how high the school's scores are. Methodology

Nearby Schools

Sorted by distance. Both rank columns shown so you can compare quickly.

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Franklin High School Rankings coming soon.
Richmond Elementary School#28#141High
Atkinson Elementary School#68#202Medium
Woodstock Elementary School#75#149High
Grout Elementary School#122#163High

Similar Schools

Schools with comparable demographics, income, and size. Both rank columns shown for direct comparison.

SchoolAchievementDecodedShiftStoryConfidence
Siletz Valley Schools Rankings coming soon.
Bonanza Elementary School#8#12High
Days Creek Charter School Rankings coming soon.
Southern Oregon Success Academy Rankings coming soon.
Ft Vannoy Elementary School Rankings coming soon.

Historical Ranks

Year-by-year decoded and achievement ranks. Pandemic-affected years are excluded — we don't interpolate scores across the gap.

YearAchievementDecodedShift
2024#70#44
2023#79#5

Note: assessment transitions (where a state changes its test) are footnoted on the methodology page; trends are not computed across breakpoints.

Trajectory

2023: percentile 942024: percentile 98

Trending up

Based on 2 years (2023–2024).

Slope: +4.1 pct/yr (no CI — too few years)

Low confidence

How this works: we fit a linear trend across the available years of Decoded percentile, then bucket the slope into a direction. Wide confidence intervals (uncertain trends) collapse to Holding steady. See the methodology page for thresholds.

Cohort Progression

Kids who started 3rd grade here in 2023 gained 27 proficiency points by 4th grade — gaining while the typical metro school declined.

Based on 20 cohorts across math + ELA.

Learning rate: +7.3 proficiency points/yr (95% CI 0.9 to 13.7)

Medium confidence

Cohort 2015201620172018201920232024 Slope
ELA · started 8th in 2015
G8
290
ELA · started 7th in 2015
G7
268
G8
240
-28.7
ELA · started 6th in 2015
G6
241
G7
253
G8
276
+17.2
ELA · started 5th in 2015
G5
266
G6
235
G7
254
G8
266
+2.1
ELA · started 4th in 2015
G4
276
G5
298
G6
283
G7
273
G8
300
+2.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2015
G3
228
G4
239
G5
252
G6
237
G7
224
-1.1
ELA · started 3rd in 2016
G3
261
G4
292
G5
281
G6
245
-5.7
ELA · started 3rd in 2017
G3
272
G4
308
G5
310
+19.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2018
G3
303
G4
296
-6.8
ELA · started 3rd in 2019
G3
275
ELA · started 5th in 2023
G5
289
ELA · started 4th in 2023
G4
272
G5
273
+0.9
ELA · started 3rd in 2023
G3
275
G4
302
+27.3
ELA · started 3rd in 2024
G3
287
Math · started 8th in 2015
G8
233
Math · started 7th in 2015
G7
269
G8
276
+6.9
Math · started 6th in 2015
G6
221
G7
233
G8
262
+20.7
Math · started 5th in 2015
G5
214
G6
197
G7
229
G8
241
+11.3
Math · started 4th in 2015
G4
245
G5
262
G6
238
G7
274
G8
263
+4.7
Math · started 3rd in 2015
G3
200
G4
200
G5
225
G6
211
G7
189
-1.1
Math · started 3rd in 2016
G3
221
G4
264
G5
238
G6
205
-7.6
Math · started 3rd in 2017
G3
262
G4
282
G5
305
+21.6
Math · started 3rd in 2018
G3
269
G4
300
+30.6
Math · started 3rd in 2019
G3
266
Math · started 5th in 2023
G5
271
Math · started 4th in 2023
G4
234
G5
246
+11.4
Math · started 3rd in 2023
G3
255
G4
288
+33.2
Math · started 3rd in 2024
G3
256

How this works: we follow each grade-cohort across years through the school (3rd graders in 2023 are 4th graders in 2024, etc.) and fit a linear slope on a 100–400 proficiency-points scale built from the state assessment's four levels (L1=1, L2=2, L3=3, L4=4, weighted by student share). This is the same construction Stanford SEDA uses (edopportunity.org/methods); it's not student-level tracking — we measure the school's cohort, not individuals. See the methodology page for thresholds.

Evidence & technical detailClick to expand

School Alpha

School Alpha is the residual between actual and expected performance once school context is held constant. It is a context-adjusted estimate, not a causal claim about teaching quality.

Shrunk Alpha (95% CI)
+1.11 (95% CI: +1.06 to +1.16)

SES index components

SES method
Blended SES index (ACS + FRL)
SES index value
48.7
FRL %
77.7%
ELL %
13.0% · OR ODE At-A-Glance (Ever English Learners)
SPED %
25.0% · OR ODE At-A-Glance
Tract median income (ACS 5-year)
$93,116
Tract poverty rate
0.1%
Tract % bachelor's+
59.2%

What "Decoded Rank" means

Decoded Rank converts School Alpha — the context-adjusted residual — into a parent-facing rank within the metro pool. A higher Decoded Rank than Achievement Rank means the school's raw scores understate its performance once neighborhood and school context are held constant. The reverse means raw scores overstate it. The rank is one signal, not a verdict.

Data & sources

Assessment data
2023–24 school year
NCES CCD vintage
2023
Census ACS 5-year vintage
2020-2024
Last updated
July 26, 2026
Methodology version
0.9.0

Cross-state metro note: This metro spans state lines. Both states use Smarter Balanced assessments with a common scale for grades 3–8 ELA/math. Context-adjusted ranks are computed within each state's testing context, then aggregated across the metro.

Source files (3)

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