Beach Elementary School vs Grout Elementary School

Grout Elementary School and Beach Elementary School are both high-performing Portland elementary schools, but Grout pulls ahead in overall rating by half a point — 9.4/10 versus Beach's 8.9/10. That gap is more significant in state context: Grout ranks #14 of 1,226 Oregon schools, placing it in the top 1.2% statewide, while Beach ranks #62, which is still top 5% but a meaningful tier below.

Academically, the two schools are close but not identical. Grout Elementary School scores 9.3/10 in academics versus Beach Elementary School's 9.1/10. The starker difference is in student growth: Grout posts a 9.8/10 growth score compared to Beach's 9.2/10 — a 0.6-point gap indicating that Grout students are consistently making faster year-over-year gains relative to peers with similar starting points. For families weighing trajectory over baseline, that growth differential is the single most telling number in this comparison.

Both schools serve similar populations: enrollment is close — 325 students at Beach Elementary School versus 302 at Grout Elementary School — and free and reduced lunch eligibility is identical at 65%, signaling comparable economic demographics. Where they differ is in staffing density. Grout's student-teacher ratio of 16.8:1 is meaningfully tighter than Beach's 18.1:1, which translates to roughly one fewer student per teacher — a tangible difference in daily classroom attention.

One structural distinction separates the schools: Beach Elementary School serves students starting in preschool (PK–05), while Grout Elementary School begins at kindergarten (KG–05). For families with children younger than kindergarten age, Beach is the only option of the two. The schools are 5.3 miles apart, making this a genuine cross-town choice rather than a neighborhood proximity question for most Portland families.