School changes: every school the plan touches

Schools that close, schools that take in students, Title I and SUN schools, and separation by race

The scenarios change far more schools than the ones that close. In Scenario A, 60 of PPS’s 72 schools with grades K-8 would close, send students away, take in students or change boundaries. In Scenario B, 53 would. This page counts those schools and the students in them. It also looks at Title I and SUN schools, and at whether the moves would sort students by race.

All numbers count students in kindergarten through grade 8, the students this site is about, in October 2025. They leave out high schools. We follow PPS’s school guides to see where each school’s students would go. “Underserved racial groups” is PPS’s term for Latino, Black, Native American, Pacific Islander and multiracial students of other ancestries.

In brief

  • Schools. In Scenario A, 14 schools close and 32 schools take in students from closed schools or moved programs. In Scenario B, 11 close and 27 take in students.
  • Students. The groups of students that would change buildings in Scenario A enroll about 6,900 students today (5,943 in B). This number shows the size of the change, not a count of the children who will move. The changes start in 2027-28 or later, so many of today’s students will have moved on by then. The schools that would take them in enroll about 9,804 more students today. Those students stay put, but their school changes around them. The table below counts every group.
  • Title I schools. All 6 closing Title I schools are the same in both scenarios: Beach, Buckman, James John, Marysville, Peninsula and Woodmere. PPS’s own guides project that Brentwood Middle School would lose Title I status in both scenarios.
  • SUN schools. 9 SUN Community Schools close in Scenario A (8 in B). In Scenario A, 6 of them are sites the county planned to cut in 2026 and then saved.
  • Special education. In Scenario A, special education classrooms with 10 teachers would move out of 7 schools that close or lose grades. In Scenario B, 8 teachers from 5 schools would. The guides name a new site for each classroom, but families and school teams will decide where each student goes. Creston’s program for deaf and hard of hearing students would move to Glencoe.
  • Separation by race. Across the district, the plan would not make schools more separated by race. Locally, it would. Where immersion programs gather into one school, Latino and white students who now share a building would attend different buildings. Where neighborhood schools merge, as at Sabin and MLK Jr., separation falls.

How many students the plan affects

In Scenario A, 18,380 students would change buildings or see their school change around them. That is 69% of the 26,664 K-8 students in PPS schools. In Scenario B, 16,114 students would (60%). Some schools have only a boundary or feeder change. Their students stay, but PPS may assign future students to a different school. Counting them too, the plan touches 21,734 students in Scenario A (82%) and 19,382 in Scenario B (73%). None of today’s students in that last group move.

With high school students. Metropolitan Learning Center would stop teaching grades 9-12. Its 40 high school students would choose another school. Another 8,317 students attend the 6 high schools whose boundaries or feeder schools change. None of them move. Counting all of these students, the total would be 30,091 in Scenario A (76% of all 39,694 PPS students) and 27,739 in Scenario B (70%).

The table counts each student once. At a school that sends some students away and takes in others, the students who leave count as changing buildings. The rest count as staying at a school that takes in students. Like the rest of the page, these are October 2025 students. So the numbers show the size of each change, not how many children will move.

Table 1: Students at each kind of school change, October 2025 enrollment. Kindergarten through grade 8 only. Each cell gives students and, in parentheses, their share of all K-8 students. Bold rows are totals of the rows above them.
Scenario A Scenario B
Their school closes 4,258 (16%) 3,301 (12%)
Their whole program moves to another building (Odyssey) 217 (1%) 217 (1%)
Their program or grades move out of a school that stays open 2,425 (9%) 2,425 (9%)
Change buildings 6,900 (26%) 5,943 (22%)
Stay at a school that takes in students 9,804 (37%) 8,241 (31%)
Stay at a school that loses a program or grades 1,676 (6%) 1,930 (7%)
Change buildings or see their school change 18,380 (69%) 16,114 (60%)
At a school with only a boundary or feeder change 3,354 (13%) 3,268 (12%)
All students at a school the plan changes 21,734 (82%) 19,382 (73%)
Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 4, “Who would the school serve?”, column “Underserved racial groups”, with no changes and under each option (page); PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026. Method details: Sources & methods.

1. Map: the share of students from underserved groups at each school

In Scenario A, the share of students from underserved racial groups would change by 5 points or more at 20 schools. In Scenario B, 17 schools would see a change that large. In Scenario A, it would fall at 13 schools and rise at 7. In Scenario B, it would fall at 10 and rise at 7. The biggest change is at Atkinson. Its Spanish immersion program would move to Lent, and Creston’s neighborhood students would move in. So its share would fall from 44% to 20%. At Clark, the share would rise from 52% to 66% after its Mandarin program moves to Woodstock.

The map shows each school as a circle. A bigger circle means more students, and a darker blue means a larger share from underserved groups. Use the buttons on the map to switch between today, Scenario A and Scenario B. Hover over or tap a circle to see a school’s numbers. These are the same estimates as the rest of the page: today’s students, moved all at once (see What this estimate can’t show).

Share of students from underserved racial groups
Under 20% 20% to 34% 35% to 49% 50% to 64% 65% or more
Circle size: students 250 500 900
Dark ring: share changes by 5 points or more
Dashed gray ring: school closes or its program moves
Figure 1: Share of students from underserved racial groups at each K-8, middle and alternative school, today and after each scenario. Circle area shows students. A dark ring marks a share that changes by 5 points or more. A dashed gray ring marks a school that closes or whose program moves. High schools are not shown.

Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; school locations: pps-explorer by Jason Brown (public/data/sq_*_schools.geojson), with Richmond moved to the Census geocode of its address; basemap: Esri, World Light Gray Canvas; map design inspired by the scenario map on ppsdata.info by Alex Meub (meub/pps-data). Method details: Sources & methods.

2. How many schools and students the plan changes

Most schools that change don’t close. They take in students, send some students away, or both. A school “takes in students” when a closing school, an immersion program or a grade moves into it. A school “sends students away” when it keeps its building but loses a program or its middle grades.

Figure 2: Number of PPS schools by what the scenario does to them. Hover over a bar to see the schools in it, the students enrolled today, and the number of Title I and SUN schools.

Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 4, “Who would the school serve?”, column “Underserved racial groups”, with no changes and under each option (page); PPS Funded Programs, Title IA page, lists of “2026-2027 Title IA Schools” (with bridge schools) and “2025-2026 Title IA Schools” (page), retrieved October 11, 2026; Multnomah County, SUN Community School Contact List – August 2026 (PDF, linked from the SUN Community Schools page), retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026. Method details: Sources & methods.

Table 2: Schools by what the scenario does to them: number of schools, students enrolled in October 2025, and Title I and SUN schools.
Scenario A
Scenario B
Schools Students Title I SUN Schools Students Title I SUN
Closes 14 4,258 6 9 11 3,301 6 8
Program moves to another building 1 217 0 0 1 217 0 0
Takes in students 23 7,554 13 14 19 6,245 11 12
Takes in students and sends some away 9 3,790 6 6 8 3,314 5 5
Sends some students away 5 2,561 2 3 6 3,037 3 4
Boundary or feeder change only 8 3,354 2 4 8 3,268 2 4
No change 12 4,930 4 3 19 7,282 6 6
Total — 72 26,664 33 39 72 26,664 33 39
Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 4, “Who would the school serve?”, column “Underserved racial groups”, with no changes and under each option (page); PPS Funded Programs, Title IA page, lists of “2026-2027 Title IA Schools” (with bridge schools) and “2025-2026 Title IA Schools” (page), retrieved October 11, 2026; Multnomah County, SUN Community School Contact List – August 2026 (PDF, linked from the SUN Community Schools page), retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026. Method details: Sources & methods.

The groups that would change buildings in Scenario A (about 6,900 students today) include:

  • students at closing schools;
  • students in immersion programs that move;
  • middle-grade students at K-8 schools that become K-5;
  • César Chávez’s neighborhood students, who move so the school can become a Spanish immersion school.

This page leaves out high school students. The plan changes high schools only through boundaries for future students, with one exception. Metropolitan Learning Center would stop teaching grades 9-12. It has 40 high school students today, who would choose another school.

3. Title I schools

Title I is federal money for schools that serve many students from low-income families. PPS explains its rule this way: “In order to be identified as a Title I school, at least 33% of K-8 students need to be receiving support services from the state.” PPS lists 33 Title I schools for 2026-27. Three of them are “bridge” schools: Arleta, Atkinson and Roosevelt. PPS says bridge schools “have recently exited Title I eligibility but continue to receive a limited allocation of Title I funds for the 26-27 school year.”

29 of the 33 Title I schools would close, send students away, take in students or change boundaries in Scenario A (27 in B).

  • Closing. Beach, Buckman, James John, Marysville, Peninsula and Woodmere close in both scenarios.
  • Taking in students. 19 Title I schools take in students in Scenario A.
  • Losing Title I status. PPS’s guides project that Brentwood Middle School would no longer be a Title I school. Students from closing Sellwood Middle School would arrive, and PPS projects Brentwood’s share from underserved racial groups would fall from 46% to 27%. In Scenario A, PPS also projects that Markham would lose Title I status after taking in most of Stephenson’s students.
  • Gaining Title I status. PPS projects that Arleta, now a bridge school, would be a full Title I school again after taking in Marysville’s students.

Figure 3 sorts the students the changes touch by their school’s Title I status, before and after. It uses the Title I status in PPS’s school guides, which count bridge schools as not Title I.

These counts include every student in each group, not only students from low-income families. PPS runs Title I school-wide, so every student at a Title I school gets its services. PPS publishes family income only for whole schools, not for each program. So we can’t count how many low-income students would move. Some groups have fewer low-income students than the school they join. For example, PPS counts 28% of Sabin’s students as low-income (direct certification), and Sabin is not a Title I school. Its students would join MLK Jr., which is.

  • Leaving Title I. In Scenario A, groups that enroll about 508 students today would move from a Title I school to one that would not be. They are Buckman’s students, Beach’s neighborhood students and Clark’s Mandarin program.
  • Losing Title I in place. About 786 students attend Brentwood and Markham today (447 at Brentwood in Scenario B). They would stay, but PPS projects their school would lose Title I.
  • Gaining Title I. Groups that enroll about 1,301 students today would move into a Title I school, such as Sabin’s students into MLK Jr. Arleta’s 230 students would stay at a school that becomes Title I.
Figure 3: Students the changes touch, by their school’s Title I status before and after, in PPS’s school guides. All students in each group, not only students from low-income families. Students enrolled in October 2025; the changes start in 2027-28 or later, so these numbers show the size of each change. Students who move between two schools that aren’t Title I are not shown. Hover over a bar to see the schools.

Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 4, “Who would the school serve?”, column “Underserved racial groups”, with no changes and under each option (page); PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS, School/Neighborhood Enrollment by Ethnicity & Program, October 2025 (School rows; PPS Data & Reporting). Method details: Sources & methods.

PPS has not said what happens to Title I money when a school closes or merges. We found no statement in the scenario memo, the school guides or the rightsizing FAQ (searched October 11, 2026). Table 3 shows where students from closing Title I and SUN schools would go.

Table 3: Where students from closing Title I and SUN schools would go, and whether the receiving school is a Title I or SUN school. Title I after the move is PPS’s projection in its school guides.
Closing school
Receiving school
Title I SUN Scenario Goes to Students Title I after SUN
Beach
Yes Yes (saved in 2026) A and B César Chávez 155 Yes Yes
Yes Yes (saved in 2026) A and B Chief Joseph 133 No No
Buckman
Yes Yes (saved in 2026) A and B Abernethy 142 No No
Yes Yes (saved in 2026) A and B Sunnyside 142 No No
Creston
No Yes (saved in 2026) A and B Atkinson 213 No No
James John
Yes Yes A and B Sitton 232 Yes Yes
Yes Yes A and B César Chávez 133 Yes Yes
Marysville
Yes Yes A and B Arleta 307 Yes Yes
Peninsula
Yes Yes (saved in 2026) A and B Rosa Parks 239 Yes Yes
Rose City Park
No Yes (saved in 2026) A only Scott 210 Yes Yes
No Yes (saved in 2026) A only Vestal 207 Yes Yes
Sabin
No Yes (saved in 2026) A and B MLK Jr. 269 Yes Yes
Woodmere
Yes Yes A and B Whitman 227 Yes Yes
Sources: where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 4, “Who would the school serve?”, column “Underserved racial groups”, with no changes and under each option (page); PPS Funded Programs, Title IA page, lists of “2026-2027 Title IA Schools” (with bridge schools) and “2025-2026 Title IA Schools” (page), retrieved October 11, 2026; Multnomah County, SUN Community School Contact List – August 2026 (PDF, linked from the SUN Community Schools page), retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026. Method details: Sources & methods.

4. SUN Community Schools

SUN Community Schools are run by Multnomah County with partner groups. The county says they have “After school programs”, “Links to food, shelter, and help with energy bills” and “Parent and family activities and events”. 39 PPS schools are SUN sites on the county’s August 2026 list.

  • Closing. In Scenario A, 9 SUN schools close: Beach, Buckman, Creston, James John, Marysville, Peninsula, Rose City Park, Sabin and Woodmere. In Scenario B, 8 close.
  • Sites the county just saved. In spring 2026 the county planned to end SUN at nine sites. It “determined it would cut sites at PPS using demographic and poverty data,” a county spokeswoman told Willamette Week. In June the county board voted to restore full SUN funding. 6 of those nine schools close in Scenario A: Beach, Buckman, Creston, Peninsula, Rose City Park and Sabin. In Scenario B, 5 close.
  • Taking in students. 20 SUN schools take in students in Scenario A.

Neither PPS nor the county has said whether a SUN site moves with its students when a school closes. Some students from SUN schools would go to schools without one. For example, Buckman’s students would go to Abernethy and Sunnyside, and Beach’s neighborhood students to Chief Joseph. None of those three is a SUN school (Table 3).

Sources: Multnomah County, SUN Community School Contact List – August 2026 (PDF, linked from the SUN Community Schools page), retrieved October 11, 2026; Willamette Week, “Multnomah County Looks to Cut Nine SUN Schools” (June 2, 2026; article); Multnomah County news release on the adopted budget, June 5, 2026 (release); where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

5. Special education classrooms

PPS’s school guides name a new building for each special education classroom in a school that closes or loses grades. They don’t say where each student will go. Families and school teams will decide that, one student at a time. In Scenario A, classrooms with 10 teachers and 30 aides would move out of 7 schools. In Scenario B, classrooms with 8 teachers and 24 aides would move out of 5 schools. In both scenarios, Creston’s program for deaf and hard of hearing students would move to Glencoe.

How PPS serves students with an IEP. An IEP (Individualized Education Program) is a student’s written plan for special education. Most of these students get help at their own school, in its Learning Center, which every PPS school has. Some students need a small classroom with more staff. PPS runs three kinds:

  • Social Emotional Skills (SES) classrooms, for students whose social, emotional or mental health needs keep them from learning in a general classroom without this help.
  • Communication Behavior (CB) classrooms, for students with significant social, behavior and sometimes developmental needs tied to communication and sensory challenges.
  • Intensive Skills classrooms (ISC), for students whose cognitive and daily-living skill delays make the general curriculum hard to reach.

PPS says each of these classrooms serves 10 to 12 students. The district chooses which school hosts each one, so many students attend one outside their neighborhood. Buckman’s guide calls Buckman “a regional site” for SES classrooms.

Sources: PPS Special Education, Special Education Service Delivery Options and Programs (page), retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 1 and page 3, “What about special education?”; every sentence used is in data-raw/sped/sped_moves.csv (page). Method details: Sources & methods.

Where the guides say each classroom would go

The staff counts come from a spreadsheet of planned 2026-27 staffing called Board Request as of 9/22. Board member Virginia La Forte requested the data and shared the spreadsheet on her Facebook account. She wrote that she “wanted to see a basic lay of the land.” PPS has not published it as a report. So we use it only to show how many staff each classroom has. It counts staff positions, not students.

Table 4: Special education classrooms that PPS’s school guides say would move, where they would go, and the staff planned for each in 2026-27. SES, CB and ISC are defined above; DHH is the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. Rows apply to both scenarios unless marked. “Has one today?” asks whether the new school already has that kind of classroom. Staff counts are positions, not students.
Classroom Now at Staff, 2026-27 Moves to Has one today?
CB K-5 Woodmere 2 teachers, 6 aides Kelly No
DHH K-5 Creston Not in the sheet (CRIS) Glencoe –
ISC 6-8 Beverly Cleary 1 teacher, 3 aides Harriet Tubman Yes
ISC K-2 Maplewood 1 teacher, 3 aides Markham Yes
SES K-5 Buckman 2 teachers, 6 aides Sunnyside No
CB K-5 Lewis (Scenario A only) 1 teacher, 3 aides Woodstock Yes
CB K-5 Stephenson (Scenario A only) 1 teacher, 3 aides Capitol Hill No
SES K-5 Sabin 2 teachers, 6 aides Vernon or MLK Jr No / No
SES 3-5 Arleta 1 teacher, 3 aides Stays –
Sources: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 1 and page 3, “What about special education?”; every sentence used is in data-raw/sped/sped_moves.csv (page); special education staffing: Board Request as of 9/22 (Google Sheet), SPED tab, “2026-27 Projected Allocation” (sheet), requested by PPS board member Virginia La Forte, who shared it on her Facebook account (“I wanted to see a basic lay of the land and requested this data”) and in the PPS Community Advocacy group; not a published PPS report; retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.
  • New rooms. In Scenario A, Capitol Hill, Kelly, Sunnyside Environmental, Vernon and MLK Jr don’t have that kind of classroom today, so they would need space and staff set up for it. Woodstock, Harriet Tubman and Markham already do. Their guides say the moved classroom would join the one there.
  • Size. PPS says each classroom serves 10 to 12 students. If each teacher position is one classroom, the classrooms that would move in Scenario A have room for about 100 to 120 students. This is an estimate of room, not a count of children.
  • Arleta. Its SES classroom for grades 3-5 stays. Arleta’s guide says the program “will continue uninterrupted” when Marysville’s students arrive.

Creston’s program for deaf and hard of hearing students

Creston’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program would move to Glencoe in both scenarios. Creston runs it with Columbia Regional Inclusive Services (CRIS). Creston’s guide says it serves “students from across the region, extending to communities such as Molalla and West Linn-Wilsonville.” Today these students go on to Mt. Tabor Middle School, but the rest of Creston’s students don’t. Glencoe sends its students to Mt. Tabor. So PPS says DHH students would move up with their Glencoe classmates. A PPS staff member told the board on October 6: “the deaf and hard of hearing students will flow as a cohort with their Glencoe peers onto Mount Tabor.” The staffing spreadsheet doesn’t include the DHH program.

Sources: PPS, Rightsizing Update: Scenario Release board memo, October 5, 2026, pp. 2–3 (BoardBook); PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 1 and page 3, “What about special education?”; every sentence used is in data-raw/sped/sped_moves.csv (page); PPS Board of Education, regular meeting, October 6, 2026, staff answers at 1:54:18 (Deaf and Hard of Hearing program) and 4:05:31 (special education classrooms) (video; automated transcript via Save PDX Schools). Method details: Sources & methods.

What the guides leave open

  • Each student’s placement. Every guide says: “A school or program move does not determine where an individual student receiving special education services will go.”
  • Sabin. Its SES students would go to “either” Vernon or MLK Jr. The Special Education Department will decide with families.
  • Learning Center staff. In Scenario A, the closing schools have 21.5 Learning Center teacher positions (full-time equivalent) and 20 one-to-one aides planned for 2026-27. The guides don’t say where those staff go. At the October 6 board meeting, a staff member said: “Services follow students, though. So if there’s a paraeducator at one school, that paraeducator would follow the student to the other school.”
  • Silent guides. Some guides say nothing about special education beyond the text every guide shares. They include Atkinson, which takes in Creston’s neighborhood students, and Mt. Tabor, the DHH program’s middle school. Sellwood, which closes, is silent too.
  • Counts. No guide gives the number of students in any special education classroom. PPS scheduled meetings for families of students with IEPs on October 9 and October 13, 2026.

PPS’s own check. PPS reports that 1,545 K-8 students receiving special education services would move in Scenario A (27%). That is the same rate as all K-8 students (27%). In Scenario B, 1,379 would move (24%). PPS doesn’t define “move” or show which programs these students are in.

Sources: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 1 and page 3, “What about special education?”; every sentence used is in data-raw/sped/sped_moves.csv (page); special education staffing: Board Request as of 9/22 (Google Sheet), SPED tab, “2026-27 Projected Allocation” (sheet), requested by PPS board member Virginia La Forte, who shared it on her Facebook account (“I wanted to see a basic lay of the land and requested this data”) and in the PPS Community Advocacy group; not a published PPS report; retrieved October 11, 2026; PPS Board of Education, regular meeting, October 6, 2026, staff answers at 1:54:18 (Deaf and Hard of Hearing program) and 4:05:31 (special education classrooms) (video; automated transcript via Save PDX Schools); PPS Board of Education, 10/06/26 PowerPoint, slide 46, engagement calendar (BoardBook); PPS Board of Education, 10/06/26 PowerPoint, slide 44, “Balance and Impact: Kindergarten – 8th Grade Students Who Move” (BoardBook). Method details: Sources & methods.

6. How schools that take in students would change

Many schools that take in students would see a large change in who attends. The biggest changes come where a school’s own program leaves and a different group of students arrives.

  • MLK Jr. MLK Jr.’s Mandarin program moves out and all of Sabin’s students move in. Sabin is 63% white, and MLK Jr.’s neighborhood program is 45% Black. Black students would go from 31% of MLK Jr. to 22%, and white students from 24% to 46%.
  • Atkinson. Its Spanish program (70% Latino) moves to Lent, and Creston’s students arrive. Latino students would go from 38% to 12% of the school. White students would go from 53% to 71%.
  • Vestal (Scenario A). Rose City Park’s Vietnamese program arrives. Asian students would go from 6% to 30% of the school. Black students would go from 13% to 8%.
  • Scott. Scott’s Spanish program moves to Rigler. In Scenario A, Rose City Park’s neighborhood program (67% white) arrives. Latino students would go from 33% to 18%, and white students from 38% to 48%. In Scenario B, Scott keeps only its neighborhood program, and Black students would go from 10% to 18%.
  • César Chávez. It becomes a Spanish immersion school, and its neighborhood program moves out. Black students would go from 12% of the school to 1%. See Equity §3.
  • Rosa Parks. It takes in Peninsula and César Chávez’s neighborhood program. Its share from underserved racial groups would fall from 82% to 65%.
Figure 4: Share of students from underserved racial groups at each school that would take in students: today (hollow gray ring), Scenario A (orange diamond) and Scenario B (aqua square). October 2025 students, moved as PPS’s school guides describe. Schools are sorted by the change in Scenario A, from the largest drop (top) to the largest rise (bottom). Hover for each racial and ethnic group.

Sources: PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

PPS’s own guides give a projected share from underserved racial groups for each school, with and without changes. Our estimate of each school’s change agrees with PPS’s projection: the correlation is 0.93 across 70 school-scenario pairs. Table 5 lists every group at every school that takes in students.

Table 5: Schools that would take in students: share of each racial and ethnic group today → after the move. Native American and Pacific Islander shares are minimums (see the note).
School Students Latino Black Asian White Multiracial: Asian and White Multiracial: other Native American Pacific Islander
Scenario A
Abernethy 269 → 410 9% → 11% <2% → 2% 2% → 2% 76% → 71% 7% → 6% 4% → 6% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Arleta 230 → 537 15% → 18% 2% → 8% 3% → 8% 61% → 47% 6% → 4% 12% → 11% <3% → 1% <3% → 3%
Atkinson 366 → 401 38% → 12% <2% → 2% <2% → 3% 53% → 71% 3% → 6% 4% → 5% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Beaumont 416 → 519 24% → 8% 4% → 4% <2% → 2% 59% → 71% 8% → 9% 5% → 6% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Beverly Cleary 480 → 535 7% → 10% 2% → 5% 4% → 3% 71% → 67% 9% → 7% 6% → 8% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Boise-Eliot/Humboldt 294 → 487 20% → 17% 41% → 34% <2% → 3% 23% → 28% <2% → 6% 12% → 11% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Brentwood 447 → 808 24% → 17% 13% → 7% 11% → 7% 40% → 58% 2% → 4% 7% → 6% <2% → <1% 1% → 1%
Capitol Hill 325 → 409 12% → 12% 2% → 3% 3% → 3% 70% → 70% 3% → 5% 9% → 8% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Chief Joseph 242 → 375 12% → 12% 5% → 12% <3% → 1% 69% → 61% 7% → 7% 5% → 7% <3% → <2% <3% → <2%
César Chávez 443 → 621 64% → 68% 12% → 1% 2% → <1% 16% → 28% <2% → 1% 4% → 1% <2% → <1% 1% → <1%
Duniway 362 → 621 6% → 8% <2% → <1% 1% → 3% 78% → 72% 9% → 9% 5% → 6% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
George 358 → 591 47% → 49% 16% → 14% 3% → 3% 20% → 23% <2% → <1% 13% → 9% <2% → <1% <2% → 1%
Harriet Tubman 402 → 598 16% → 15% 25% → 21% 2% → 2% 43% → 47% 4% → 4% 9% → 10% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Harrison Park 419 → 559 15% → 13% 13% → 10% 21% → 18% 36% → 44% 6% → 6% 6% → 6% <2% → <1% 3% → 3%
Hayhurst 290 → 491 13% → 12% 6% → 4% 2% → 2% 62% → 64% 8% → 9% 9% → 8% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Hosford 528 → 924 11% → 10% 3% → 2% 5% → 4% 70% → 73% 5% → 6% 5% → 5% <1% → <1% <1% → <1%
Lent 256 → 434 68% → 69% <2% → <2% <2% → <2% 24% → 26% 4% → 3% 2% → 2% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
MLC 234 → 451 11% → 9% <3% → 1% <3% → 2% 73% → 74% 4% → 7% 9% → 7% <3% → <2% <3% → <2%
MLK Jr. 319 → 395 19% → 15% 31% → 22% 5% → 2% 24% → 46% 8% → 3% 12% → 10% <2% → 1% <2% → <2%
Markham 339 → 536 15% → 13% 17% → 12% 6% → 5% 49% → 56% 5% → 7% 6% → 5% <2% → <1% 3% → 2%
Mt. Tabor 430 → 665 11% → 9% 2% → 2% 5% → 4% 56% → 62% 23% → 18% 3% → 4% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Ockley Green 460 → 620 18% → 21% 17% → 21% 2% → 2% 47% → 38% 3% → 2% 11% → 12% <2% → 1% 1% → 2%
Rieke 264 → 350 9% → 9% 3% → 3% 3% → 3% 72% → 71% 6% → 7% 6% → 7% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Rigler 289 → 511 62% → 55% 3% → 3% <2% → <1% 31% → 36% <2% → 2% 2% → 3% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Rosa Parks 160 → 477 36% → 27% 36% → 24% 3% → 3% 14% → 30% <4% → 2% 9% → 11% <4% → <2% <4% → 1%
Roseway Heights 572 → 673 21% → 29% 10% → 9% 13% → 11% 43% → 40% 3% → 2% 8% → 7% 1% → 1% 2% → 2%
Scott 476 → 464 33% → 18% 10% → 12% 3% → 4% 38% → 48% 3% → 2% 7% → 8% 3% → 3% 3% → 4%
Sitton 345 → 439 39% → 26% 12% → 15% 3% → 4% 33% → 36% <2% → 3% 10% → 14% <2% → 1% <2% → 1%
Sunnyside 485 → 434 11% → 11% 1% → 2% 1% → 2% 74% → 70% 7% → 6% 6% → 7% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Vestal 283 → 490 19% → 12% 13% → 8% 6% → 30% 45% → 36% 2% → 5% 12% → 8% <2% → <2% 2% → 1%
Whitman 194 → 421 24% → 24% 11% → 11% 10% → 11% 37% → 35% 3% → 2% 10% → 13% 3% → 2% 3% → 1%
Woodstock 367 → 458 9% → 8% 3% → 2% 23% → 32% 46% → 40% 15% → 13% 4% → 4% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Scenario B
Abernethy 269 → 410 9% → 11% <2% → 2% 2% → 2% 76% → 71% 7% → 6% 4% → 6% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Arleta 230 → 537 15% → 18% 2% → 8% 3% → 8% 61% → 47% 6% → 4% 12% → 11% <3% → 1% <3% → 3%
Atkinson 366 → 401 38% → 12% <2% → 2% <2% → 3% 53% → 71% 3% → 6% 4% → 5% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Beaumont 416 → 519 24% → 8% 4% → 4% <2% → 2% 59% → 71% 8% → 9% 5% → 6% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Beverly Cleary 480 → 535 7% → 10% 2% → 5% 4% → 3% 71% → 67% 9% → 7% 6% → 8% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Boise-Eliot/Humboldt 294 → 487 20% → 17% 41% → 34% <2% → 3% 23% → 28% <2% → 6% 12% → 11% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Brentwood 447 → 808 24% → 17% 13% → 7% 11% → 7% 40% → 58% 2% → 4% 7% → 6% <2% → <1% 1% → 1%
Chief Joseph 242 → 375 12% → 12% 5% → 12% <3% → 1% 69% → 61% 7% → 7% 5% → 7% <3% → <2% <3% → <2%
César Chávez 443 → 621 64% → 68% 12% → 1% 2% → <1% 16% → 28% <2% → 1% 4% → 1% <2% → <1% 1% → <1%
George 358 → 591 47% → 49% 16% → 14% 3% → 3% 20% → 23% <2% → <1% 13% → 9% <2% → <1% <2% → 1%
Harriet Tubman 402 → 598 16% → 15% 25% → 21% 2% → 2% 43% → 47% 4% → 4% 9% → 10% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Harrison Park 419 → 559 15% → 13% 13% → 10% 21% → 18% 36% → 44% 6% → 6% 6% → 6% <2% → <1% 3% → 3%
Hayhurst 290 → 491 13% → 12% 6% → 4% 2% → 2% 62% → 64% 8% → 9% 9% → 8% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Hosford 528 → 924 11% → 10% 3% → 2% 5% → 4% 70% → 73% 5% → 6% 5% → 5% <1% → <1% <1% → <1%
Lent 256 → 434 68% → 69% <2% → <2% <2% → <2% 24% → 26% 4% → 3% 2% → 2% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
MLC 234 → 451 11% → 9% <3% → 1% <3% → 2% 73% → 74% 4% → 7% 9% → 7% <3% → <2% <3% → <2%
MLK Jr. 319 → 395 19% → 15% 31% → 22% 5% → 2% 24% → 46% 8% → 3% 12% → 10% <2% → 1% <2% → <2%
Mt. Tabor 430 → 665 11% → 9% 2% → 2% 5% → 4% 56% → 62% 23% → 18% 3% → 4% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Ockley Green 460 → 620 18% → 21% 17% → 21% 2% → 2% 47% → 38% 3% → 2% 11% → 12% <2% → 1% 1% → 2%
Rieke 264 → 350 9% → 9% 3% → 3% 3% → 3% 72% → 71% 6% → 7% 6% → 7% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Rigler 289 → 511 62% → 55% 3% → 3% <2% → <1% 31% → 36% <2% → 2% 2% → 3% <2% → <1% <2% → <1%
Rosa Parks 160 → 477 36% → 27% 36% → 24% 3% → 3% 14% → 30% <4% → 2% 9% → 11% <4% → <2% <4% → 1%
Roseway Heights 572 → 673 21% → 29% 10% → 9% 13% → 11% 43% → 40% 3% → 2% 8% → 7% 1% → 1% 2% → 2%
Sitton 345 → 439 39% → 26% 12% → 15% 3% → 4% 33% → 36% <2% → 3% 10% → 14% <2% → 1% <2% → 1%
Sunnyside 485 → 434 11% → 11% 1% → 2% 1% → 2% 74% → 70% 7% → 6% 6% → 7% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
Whitman 194 → 421 24% → 24% 11% → 11% 10% → 11% 37% → 35% 3% → 2% 10% → 13% 3% → 2% 3% → 1%
Woodstock 367 → 458 9% → 8% 3% → 2% 23% → 32% 46% → 40% 15% → 13% 4% → 4% <2% → <2% <2% → <2%
PPS counts a student in a single-race group only if the student is not Latino and lists one race. Native American and Pacific Islander students who are also Latino or multiracial are counted elsewhere, so these shares are minimums.
To protect privacy, groups with fewer than 5 students show as <5 or <X% (the share 5 students would be).
Sources: PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

7. Would the moves sort students by race?

Across the district, no. In the places where immersion programs gather into one school, yes. Two measures help show this.

The dissimilarity index measures how unevenly two groups are spread across schools. It is the share of one group that would have to change schools for every school to have the same mix. 0 means every school has the same mix; 1 means the two groups never attend the same school.

The answer depends on what you count as one school. Some buildings already hold two very different programs. At Scott, the Spanish immersion program is 47% Latino and the neighborhood program is 20% Latino. Today those children share one building, its principal and its after-school programs. So we measure two ways:

  • Each building as one unit. Children in the same building count as attending the same school.
  • Each program as one unit. An immersion program and a neighborhood program count as separate, even in one building.

When a program moves to its own building, the building measure goes up but the program measure barely changes. The split was already there. What changes is whether the children share a building and its services.

Figure 5: Latino–white dissimilarity index, counting each building as one unit (left) or each program as one unit (right): today (hollow gray ring), Scenario A (orange diamond) and Scenario B (aqua square). 0 = every unit has the same mix; 1 = complete separation.

Sources: PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

  • Southeast. Today Atkinson holds both a Spanish program and a mostly white neighborhood program. After Scenario A, the Spanish program would be at Lent and the neighborhood program at Atkinson with Creston’s students. The Latino–white index across these buildings would rise from 0.35 to 0.58. Counting programs, it is 0.58 both before and after.
  • Northeast. Scott’s Spanish program would join Rigler. In Scenario A, Rose City Park’s neighborhood program would join Scott. The Latino–white index across buildings would rise from 0.34 to 0.36. Counting programs, it stays at 0.36. In Scenario B, the Black–white index across these buildings would rise from 0.30 to 0.43.
  • North. Sabin’s mostly white students would join MLK Jr. Here the plan brings groups together. The Latino–white index would fall from 0.37 to 0.16, and the Black–white index from 0.42 to 0.23.
  • All elementary schools. The Latino–white index across buildings would fall slightly, from 0.40 to 0.38 in Scenario A.
  • All middle schools. The Latino–white index across buildings would rise from 0.29 to 0.32 in both scenarios. Spanish programs leave Beaumont and Ockley Green for Roseway Heights and George. Beaumont also takes in Beverly Cleary’s mostly white middle grades.
Figure 6: Share of Latino students (left) and white students (right) at the schools in three local groups: today (hollow gray ring), Scenario A (orange diamond) and Scenario B (aqua square). Closing schools show today only. Hover for counts.

Sources: PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

Table 6: Separation by race across buildings and across programs: dissimilarity index (0 = even, 1 = complete separation) and exposure (the white share of the school or program attended by the typical Latino or Black student).
Unit Units
Dissimilarity index
White share of the typical student's school
Latino–white Black–white Underserved–other Latino students Black students
All elementary schools
Buildings Today 56 0.40 0.51 0.38 43% 40%
Buildings Scenario A 42 0.38 0.48 0.36 44% 43%
Buildings Scenario B 45 0.39 0.51 0.37 44% 43%
Programs Today 68 0.44 0.55 0.41 42% 40%
Programs Scenario A 47 0.40 0.50 0.38 43% 43%
Programs Scenario B 50 0.41 0.52 0.39 43% 42%
All middle schools
Buildings Today 15 0.29 0.44 0.28 48% 46%
Buildings Scenario A 14 0.32 0.41 0.30 47% 47%
Buildings Scenario B 14 0.32 0.41 0.30 47% 47%
Programs Today 26 0.36 0.47 0.35 45% 47%
Programs Scenario A 23 0.34 0.43 0.33 46% 48%
Programs Scenario B 23 0.34 0.43 0.33 46% 48%
Northeast: Scott, Rigler, Rose City Park, Vestal
Buildings Today 4 0.34 0.30 0.33 36% 41%
Buildings Scenario A 3 0.36 0.19 0.22 39% 43%
Buildings Scenario B 4 0.36 0.43 0.33 38% 39%
Programs Today 6 0.36 0.43 0.33 39% 41%
Programs Scenario A 4 0.36 0.27 0.23 40% 46%
Programs Scenario B 5 0.36 0.43 0.33 39% 41%
North: MLK Jr., Sabin, Boise-Eliot/Humboldt
Buildings Today 3 0.37 0.42 0.33 30% 28%
Buildings Scenario A 2 0.16 0.23 0.14 35% 34%
Buildings Scenario B 2 0.16 0.23 0.14 35% 34%
Programs Today 4 0.39 0.46 0.42 29% 26%
Programs Scenario A 3 0.19 0.27 0.24 35% 33%
Programs Scenario B 3 0.19 0.27 0.24 35% 33%
Southeast: Atkinson, Lent, Creston
Buildings Today 3 0.35 0.18 0.31 40% 49%
Buildings Scenario A 2 0.58 0.02 0.51 32% 57%
Buildings Scenario B 2 0.58 0.02 0.51 32% 57%
Programs Today 4 0.58 0.18 0.51 32% 56%
Programs Scenario A 2 0.58 0.02 0.51 32% 57%
Programs Scenario B 2 0.58 0.02 0.51 32% 57%
Local groups have only two to six units, so small changes in one school move the index a lot. Read them as a description of these schools, not a trend.
Sources: PPS, Enrollment Summary by Race and Ethnicity, October 2025 (separate rows for each school’s immersion and neighborhood programs; PDF), retrieved October 11, 2026; where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv. Method details: Sources & methods.

8. Middle grades: K-8 schools that send grades 6-8 away

In both scenarios, 7 K-8 schools would send their grades 6-8 to middle schools: César Chávez, Beverly Cleary, Faubion, Vernon, Laurelhurst, Sunnyside Environmental and Bridger Creative Science. Those grades enroll about 1,361 students today. Studies of similar changes elsewhere found that moving to a separate middle school lowers achievement. In Florida, the math drop was largest for Black students and for students who started behind. PPS’s slides say there is no difference.

PPS’s case. PPS made its case to the board’s Teaching, Learning, and Enrollment Committee on October 13. Middle grades in K-8 schools are small, with 77 to 234 students. They offer fewer electives, world languages and extra-help classes than 6-8 schools, which have 377 to 701 students. To staff them, PPS adds 21.1 teacher positions beyond its usual formula (about $3.4 million). The K-8 schools that would convert use 10.6 of those positions.

PPS’s evidence. The slides say state test results “do not show significant differences between 6-8 and K-8 schools”. They quote a 2011 Education Northwest review, which found “little evidence” of cause and effect between grade configuration and achievement. That means the evidence was too weak to tell, not that the two kinds of school do equally well.

Later research. Studies that follow the same students over time found drops when students move to a separate middle school:

  • New York City. Students who moved to a middle school in grade 6 or 7 fell behind in both math and English. The drop lasted at least through grade 8 (Rockoff and Lockwood, 2010).
  • Florida. Math fell by 0.12 standard deviations and reading by 0.09 when students moved at grade 6. The math drop was larger for students who started behind and for Black students. Students who went to a middle school were also more likely to have left Florida public schools by grade 10 (Schwerdt and West, 2013).
  • A 2018 study used school closures and new boundaries in one district. Its results were “much less supportive of a K-8 policy than previous research” (Hong, Zimmer and Engberg). So the evidence isn’t one-sided.

None of these studies is from Portland. We found no study showing that 6-8 schools raise achievement compared with K-8 schools. If PPS goes ahead, it could track these students’ attendance and test results by group after the move. The change would also leave middle schools slightly more separated by race (see Would the moves sort students by race?).

Sources: PPS, Middle School Student Experience: K-8 & 6-8 Schools, presentation to the Board’s Teaching, Learning, and Enrollment Committee, October 13, 2026 (BoardBook); where each school’s students would go: PPS, How Could Your School Be Impacted? school guides (per-school PDFs dated October 8, 2026), page 3, “What is being proposed?” (page); every sentence used is in data-raw/plan_flows.csv; Education Northwest. (2011, August). What the research says about K-8 versus middle school grade configurations (page); Rockoff, J. E., & Lockwood, B. B. (2010). Stuck in the middle: Impacts of grade configuration in public schools. Journal of Public Economics, 94(11–12), 1051–1061 (doi); Schwerdt, G., & West, M. R. (2013). The impact of alternative grade configurations on student outcomes through middle and high school. Journal of Public Economics, 97, 308–326 (doi; figures quoted from the working paper, CESifo WP 3530, PDF); Hong, K., Zimmer, R., & Engberg, J. (2018). How does grade configuration impact student achievement in elementary and middle school grades? Journal of Urban Economics, 105, 1–19 (doi). Method details: Sources & methods.

9. What this estimate can’t show

  • It uses today’s students to measure the change. We move October 2025 students all at once, as the school guides describe. The real changes start in 2027-28 or later, and many of today’s students will have moved on. For example, Sellwood Middle School closes in 2028, after all of its current students have left 8th grade. So our counts show the size of each change, not the children who will move.
  • School sizes. Our sizes can differ from PPS’s projections. Brentwood grows from 447 to 808 students here, but PPS projects 457 for 2031-32, when all the changes are in place. PPS’s projections include future boundary effects and enrollment trends. We use PPS’s projections as a check on the race and ethnicity shares, which are what this page compares.
  • Grades. PPS reports race by school and program, not by grade. We assume each grade has the same mix as its school or program.
  • Boundary shares. Where PPS gives a share of a boundary (half of Buckman, 70% of Maplewood), we apply it to enrolled students. Sellwood’s split between Hosford and Brentwood follows its feeder schools’ enrollment.
  • Future students. Feeder changes that move only future middle schoolers, such as Kelly to Harrison Park, are not counted as moves.
  • Small programs. Some special education classrooms and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program move. We don’t show them separately, because PPS’s race report doesn’t list them.

Details are in Sources & methods.