Creston Elementary School vs Glencoe Elementary School

Creston Elementary School and Glencoe Elementary School sit 1.5 miles apart in Portland and both earn top-20 placements among Oregon's 1,226 ranked elementary schools, but Creston edges ahead on the composite measure. Creston Elementary School holds the #4 position statewide against Glencoe Elementary School's #20, and Creston's overall rating of 9.6/10 runs 0.3 points higher than Glencoe's 9.3/10 — a narrow but meaningful gap when both schools are already operating near the ceiling of the rating scale.

Academically, the two schools are nearly identical: Glencoe Elementary School scores 9.9/10 versus Creston Elementary School's 9.8/10, a one-tenth-point difference that functionally represents a tie at the top of the scale. Growth tells the same story in reverse — Creston Elementary School holds a 9.7/10 growth score against Glencoe Elementary School's 9.6/10. Neither school shows a commanding lead in either dimension; parents choosing on academic or growth metrics alone will find the difference negligible.

The demographic picture, however, diverges sharply. Creston Elementary School enrolls 238 students compared to Glencoe Elementary School's 372, and its student-teacher ratio of 15.9:1 is notably tighter than Glencoe's 18.6:1 — nearly three fewer students per teacher on average. The free and reduced-price lunch rate is the starkest contrast: 78% of Creston students qualify versus 21% at Glencoe, which signals a significant difference in the socioeconomic composition of each school's families and the community contexts in which each school operates.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families moving within the 1.5-mile corridor between them face no grade-span disruption. The distinction comes down to school size and student population mix rather than any measurable academic separation. Creston Elementary School's smaller enrollment and lower student-teacher ratio create a tighter-knit environment at scale, while Glencoe Elementary School serves a larger, more economically homogeneous student body with equally strong measured outcomes.