Llewellyn Elementary School vs Markham Elementary School

Llewellyn Elementary School and Markham Elementary School sit just 4.0 miles apart in Portland, Oregon, yet they occupy consecutive spots among the top schools in the state — Llewellyn ranks #22 of 1,226 Oregon schools and Markham ranks #23 of 1,226, with both earning an overall rating of 9.3/10. At that tier, the difference in overall standing is negligible; parents choosing between them are really choosing between two schools with meaningfully different student populations and academic profiles.

On academics, Llewellyn Elementary holds a clear edge: its academic score is 9.9/10 versus Markham Elementary's 9.4/10 — a 0.5-point gap that reflects stronger current proficiency results. Markham flips that dynamic on growth, scoring 9.4/10 versus Llewellyn's 9.0/10, meaning Markham is doing more to move students forward from wherever they start. For a family weighing whether a school will challenge a high-performing child versus whether it will accelerate a child who needs to catch up, that tradeoff is the sharpest distinction between the two.

The demographic gap is substantial. Llewellyn Elementary reports 19% of students on free or reduced-price lunch, while Markham Elementary's figure is 64% — a 45-point difference indicating the schools serve very different socioeconomic communities. Enrollment is nearly identical (393 at Llewellyn, 402 at Markham), and student-teacher ratios are close — 15.7:1 at Llewellyn versus 16.1:1 at Markham — so class-size experience will feel similar at both campuses. Markham's stronger growth score, in context, is especially notable given that it achieves it while serving a much higher share of economically disadvantaged students.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so the full elementary arc is available at either campus. The practical distinction for a family evaluating fit is less about structure and more about community composition: Llewellyn operates in a lower-poverty environment with the highest academic proficiency score in this comparison, while Markham demonstrates a stronger track record of academic acceleration in a higher-need setting.