Glencoe Elementary School vs Sauvie Island School

Glencoe Elementary School edges out Sauvie Island School by 0.5 overall rating points — 9.4/10 versus 8.9/10 — but both rank in the top 7 percent of Oregon's 1,226 elementary schools. Glencoe sits at #20 statewide while Sauvie Island holds #78, meaning families choosing between these two schools in Portland are comparing genuine high performers separated by 58 state rank positions, not a strong school against a mediocre one.

On academic and growth measures, the gap is real but modest. Glencoe Elementary School scores 9.9/10 academically versus Sauvie Island School's 9.6/10 — a 0.3-point edge. The growth score tells a wider story: Glencoe's 9.6/10 versus Sauvie Island's 8.4/10 means Glencoe students are advancing at a measurably faster rate year over year, a 1.2-point difference that reflects how much progress students make relative to peers with similar starting points, not just where they land on a single test.

The two schools diverge more sharply on demographics and classroom structure. Sauvie Island School serves a higher share of economically disadvantaged students — 32% free or reduced lunch compared to Glencoe Elementary School's 21%. Sauvie Island also runs smaller: 214 students versus Glencoe's 372, and its student-teacher ratio of 15.3:1 beats Glencoe's 18.6:1 by more than three students per teacher. For families who prioritize individualized adult attention, Sauvie Island offers a structurally tighter classroom environment despite its lower overall rating.

The most distinctive programmatic difference is grade span. Glencoe Elementary School is a conventional public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade only, after which students move to a separate middle school. Sauvie Island School is a charter school running kindergarten through eighth grade, keeping students in a single community for nine years. That continuity — and the charter model's flexibility to shape curriculum differently than a district-run school — is a structural feature no rating captures numerically.