Cedar Mill Elementary School vs Astor Elementary School

Cedar Mill Elementary School and Astor Elementary School sit 4.4 miles apart in Portland, Oregon, but occupy very different positions in the state's school rankings. Astor Elementary School ranks #34 of 1,226 schools statewide, placing it in the top 3 percent of all Oregon schools. Cedar Mill Elementary School ranks #84 of 1,226 — still an elite placement, but 50 positions behind Astor on the same scale. Astor's overall rating of 9.2/10 edges Cedar Mill's 8.8/10 by 0.4 points, a modest gap that masks sharper differences underneath.

On raw academic proficiency, Cedar Mill Elementary School leads decisively, scoring 9.7/10 compared to Astor Elementary School's 8.9/10 — an 0.8-point advantage that reflects how well Cedar Mill students perform against state grade-level standards. The picture flips on growth: Astor Elementary School scores 9.6/10 for student growth versus Cedar Mill Elementary School's 8.9/10, a 0.7-point gap indicating that Astor is more consistently accelerating students relative to their starting points. Families who prioritize high absolute test-score performance lean toward Cedar Mill; families who prize year-over-year learning gains lean toward Astor.

Cedar Mill Elementary School and Astor Elementary School serve meaningfully different populations. Cedar Mill's free and reduced-price lunch rate stands at 18 percent; Astor's is 64 percent, reflecting a substantially higher share of low-income families. Astor also enrolls more students — 375 versus Cedar Mill's 329 — while maintaining a tighter student-teacher ratio of 15.6:1 compared to Cedar Mill's 18.3:1. That extra adult capacity per classroom is a significant operational difference, particularly given Astor's more economically diverse enrollment.

The schools also differ structurally in the grades they serve. Cedar Mill Elementary School covers kindergarten through fifth grade, a traditional elementary span. Astor Elementary School extends through eighth grade, functioning as a K–8 school — a format that eliminates one school transition, keeps sibling groups together longer, and allows for deeper teacher-student relationships across a child's elementary and middle years.