What the Maps Tell Us: Initial Findings

The Graduation Rate map presents an interesting pattern in which the suburbs are generally outperforming many of Portland’s high schools. Of the ten high schools in the region with the highest percentages of students graduating along with their cohort, six are located in Clark County, and four are located in suburban areas to the south and west of Portland. Six of these schools have below average percentages of students of color and students in poverty, but, notably, four do not. This includes two Beaverton magnet schools (Arts & Communication High School and School of Science and Technology), Union High School in Camas and Prairie High School in Vancouver, all of which have above average percentages of students in poverty and/or students of color. 

The list of high schools with the lowest graduation rates also reveals some interesting patterns, with low performing schools scattered throughout the region, and only one within Portland city limits. The performance of these schools may have little to do with locational access to opportunity, since many schools on the list are web academies, international schools, and other types of alternative schools whose student bodies are drawn from a broad geographic area. Nine out of the ten schools have above average percentages of students in poverty and/or students of color.

Further information related to the relationship between graduation rates and race can be gathered from the Graduation Rate in Relationship to Areas with Above Regional Average Percent Populations of Color map. Out of the ten schools with the highest graduation rates in the region, three schools – Union High School, Arts & Communication High School and the School of Science and Technology – are located in census tracts with higher than average percentages of populations of color. However, both the Arts & Communication High School and School of Science and Technology are magnet schools that draw students from throughout the Beaverton School District. Of the ten schools in the region with the lowest graduation rates in the region, seven schools are located within census tracts containing above average percentages of populations of color.

Similar patterns can be found in the Graduation Rate in Relationship to Areas with Above Regional Average Percent Populations in Poverty map. Of the ten schools in the region with the highest graduation rates, three schools – Prairie High School, Arts & Communication High School and the School of Science and Technology – are located in census tracts with higher than regional average percent populations in poverty. (Again, this finding is less relevant for Arts & Communication High School and the School of Science and Technology since both are magnet schools that serve the entire Beaverton School District.) Of the ten schools in the region with the lowest graduation rates, nine are located in census tracts with higher than average poverty rates. Interestingly, the lowest performing high school in the region – Estacada Alternative High School – is not located in a high-poverty census tract.