Hood River County has eight schools and 4,135 students.
One reviewer said: “The staff at Hood River Valley High School is so caring and willing to prioritize their students’ needs before theirs. It’s also so amazing seeing the amount of support the staff has on all their students.”
Grades: Academics, B; Teachers, B-plus; Clubs and Activities, B-plus; Diversity, B; College prep, A; Health and Safety, B.
Sherman County has three schools and 244 students.
One reviewer said of Sherman County District: “Beautiful, small rural area school with wonderful teachers, brand new updated facility and excellent safety.”
Grades: Academics, B; Teachers, A; Clubs and Activities, B; Diversity, B; College prep, C-plus; Health and Safety, A-minus.
Dufur has one school and 304 students.
One reviewer said, “Dufur is made up of great people who care about the kids there. It has a home-like atmosphere.”
Grades: Academics, B; Teachers, A; Clubs and Activities, B; Diversity, B; College prep, C-plus; Health and Safety, A-minus.
Hood River County School District is ranked 10th out of 197 school districts in Oregon in Niche.com’s 2019 ranking of Oregon schools.
The Niche.com website gave the Hood River district an A-minus rating for diversity and college prep, and an overall B-plus grade. The grade is based on six categories: Academics, teacher quality, clubs and activities, diversity, college prep, health and safety. (See sidebar for details.)
Sherman County and Dufur districts cracked the top 20, at 14th and 20th, respectively.
Sherman and Dufur both received overall B grades.
The Niche top-20 ranking takes in districts of all sizes, from the state’s largest to single-facility districts with fewer than 100 students. Dufur and Sherman County are among the smallest of the schools in the top 20, along with Dayville’s one school and 50 students and Riverdale’s two schools and 210 students. Portland Public Schools, ranked 18, has 86 schools and 48,345 students.
Other finalists, including number-one Lake Oswego and number-six Beaverton, are among the state’s largest. Dufur, Sherman County and Dayville are the only schools east of the Cascades and Ashland is the lone district from southern Oregon to be ranked.
Hood River did not make the Niche list in 2018.
Here is the 2019 top-20 list:
Niche gave the top six schools an A or A-minus ranking. The rest of the top 10 received B-plus grades, and the next 10 were graded with a B.
“Seeing our Hood River County public schools at the top of this list shows that the hard work of our educators and the support we get from our community is really paying off for students,” said Superintendent Dan Goldman. “We’ve laid a lot of groundwork over the last few years in pursuit of excellence and high expectations for all students, and we are seeing a lot of recent success and momentum.”
According to Goldman, Hood River Valley High School will also see a sharp rise in graduation rates based on preliminary results set for public release in January 2019.
In addition to ranking 10th overall, Hood River County School District ranks fourth for student athletes in Oregon and eighth for diversity.
Niche, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., states on its website that it “has the most comprehensive data on U.S. schools and neighborhoods.
“We rigorously analyze dozens of public data sets and over 100 million reviews and survey responses to help you understand what a place is really like.”
Data comes from public data sources such as Department of Education, the U.S. Census and the FBI, as well as millions of reviews and survey responses from students, parents, and residents.
View the full report at niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/s/oregon.
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