Four Yamhill County school districts received C or C− overall grades in Niche’s latest county evaluations—the lowest marks among the districts listed.
The 2027 evaluations highlight substantial academic concerns, particularly in mathematics.
Official district records add other details families should know: a renovated campus, college machining classes, targeted support for freshmen and school repairs already underway.
Amity School District 4J — Overall Niche Grade: C
Amity serves students in the Amity area through elementary, middle and high school. Its current Niche profile lists 748 students in preschool through 12th grade and a student-teacher ratio of 15:1.
Math Results Lag Behind Reading
Niche gives Amity a C for academics, with B− grades for teachers and college preparation. Those category grades describe a somewhat stronger evaluation of instruction and preparation for life after high school than the overall academic assessment.
The underlying achievement figures warrant attention. Niche reports 34% reading proficiency and 22% math proficiency from Oregon’s 2024–25 statewide testing program.
That means fewer than one in four tested students met the math proficiency threshold.
For families, the useful follow-up is how their child’s school identifies missing skills and provides additional instruction, rather than assuming the districtwide percentage describes every classroom.
A Renovated Campus and Help Planning What Comes Next
Families entering Amity schools are also encountering a changed physical environment. The district reports opening its renovated campus in 2025, following construction that began in September 2023.
The campus project is a concrete local development, although a new or renovated building does not establish that academic outcomes have improved.
At the high school, Amity’s ASPIRE program offers another kind of support: trained community volunteers working individually with students on education and training after graduation.
Juniors and seniors who sign up can request a mentor through counseling. The program covers career exploration, admission applications, scholarships and planning how to pay for further education.
That gives students a specific resource for navigating the transition beyond high school. Its availability is worth knowing alongside the proficiency concerns, particularly for teenagers who need help turning a general ambition into an application and a plan.
Willamina School District 30J — Overall Niche Grade: C
Willamina serves the Willamina and Grand Ronde area, with a service area extending across county lines. Its Niche profile lists 819 students in preschool through 12th grade and a student-teacher ratio of 16:1.
Activities Receive a Stronger Evaluation Than Academics
Willamina’s category grades differ considerably. Niche assigns academics a C− and teachers and college preparation C+ grades, while clubs and activities receive a B+.
The academic concern is clear in the assessment figures: Niche reports 24% reading proficiency and 15% math proficiency for Oregon’s 2024–25 statewide testing program. Most tested students fell below the proficiency threshold in both subjects.
The stronger activities grade points to a different part of school life. The district’s published club information includes drama, yearbook, Native Club, FFA, mathematics and STEM activities.
Those offerings establish opportunities to participate and explore interests. They should be considered alongside classroom achievement, without treating participation itself as proof of improved academic performance.
Machining Lessons After the School Day
A district update dated October 17, 2025 documented a particularly demanding extension of the school day: Three career and technical education students were attending Linn-Benton Community College classes three evenings a week.
Their subject was programming milling machines. It is a specific example of students pursuing technical skills through a college connection, rather than simply being told that career opportunities exist.
The same update described FFA students preparing to attend nationals and pointed seniors toward college-planning resources.
Separately, the high school’s college and career information page provides guidance on workforce options, transcripts, paying for college and private career schools.
Willamina’s profile therefore combines serious proficiency gaps with documented opportunities for students to explore both further education and technical work.
Dayton School District 8 — Overall Niche Grade: C−
Dayton serves students in Dayton and the surrounding area through its grade school, junior high and high school. Its current Niche profile lists 834 students in preschool through 12th grade and a student-teacher ratio of 16:1.
Low Proficiency Leaves Substantial Work Ahead
Niche assigns Dayton C grades for academics and teachers, while college preparation receives a B−. Administration receives a C−.
The profile reports 26% reading proficiency and 15% math proficiency from Oregon’s 2024–25 statewide assessment program.
Those figures identify a broad academic challenge, even though they cannot explain individual students’ progress or the reasons behind their results.
Attendance is another issue documented by the district itself. In its 2024–25 annual progress reflection, Dayton reported that 65.8% of students were not chronically absent, below its 67% target.
The report also acknowledged continuing difficulty improving attendance among students needing its most intensive interventions. That is a more specific concern than the overall Niche letter can communicate.
A Team Focused on Ninth-Grade Progress
The same progress report documents a more encouraging result: Dayton ended 2024–25 with 87.1% of ninth graders on track to graduate, which the district described as an improvement over the previous year.
That is an early high school progress measure, rather than a graduation rate. It helps identify whether students are accumulating the credits needed to continue toward a diploma.
Dayton also described establishing a ninth-grade team that met regularly to discuss students and coordinate classroom and targeted interventions.
For families approaching the transition to high school, that system is consequential. It identifies a point at which staff are checking progress and organizing help, before a student reaches senior year with too many missing credits.
The district’s own reporting shows both sides of the picture: stronger freshman progress alongside academic and attendance problems that remain unresolved.
Sheridan School District 48J — Overall Niche Grade: C−
Sheridan operates a K–8 school and a high school and sponsors Sheridan AllPrep Academy, an online public charter school. Its Niche district profile lists 1,086 students and a student-teacher ratio of 23:1.
Academic Concerns Extend Beyond One Measure
Sheridan receives a C− for academics and college preparation, while teachers receive a B−. Niche reports 31% reading proficiency and 21% math proficiency from Oregon’s 2024–25 testing program.
A separate Oregon Department of Education district profile provides graduation context. Published as the 2024–25 profile, it reports a 78% four-year graduation rate for the class of 2024, compared with 82% statewide for that cohort.
That graduation figure concerns students who began ninth grade in 2020–21. It is separate from both the 2024–25 assessment results and Niche’s 2027 evaluation year.
The district’s description of its schools also matters when interpreting the totals: Sheridan includes both conventional school buildings and a sponsored online charter. Districtwide figures encompass those different educational settings.
Bond-Funded Repairs Have Begun
Sheridan’s facilities work has moved beyond a proposal. The district’s bond website reports that voters approved a $6 million bond in 2025, unlocking a further $6 million state matching grant.
The first work package was completed in summer 2026. Listed projects included high school roof repairs, parking-lot work and exterior lighting.
Most construction is scheduled for summer 2027, with additional work covering such areas as building systems, safety improvements and learning spaces. Families should distinguish those planned projects from the initial repairs already completed.
The bond work does not explain or erase Sheridan’s Niche grade. It does identify a significant change affecting the buildings students use—and a public project schedule residents can follow as the district addresses its facilities needs.
Yamhill County’s Grades Span B+ to C−
The county listing has a clear spread. McMinnville received a B+, Newberg a B and Yamhill Carlton a C+, above the four districts featured here.
Within the selected group, however, the differences are narrower: two C grades and two C− grades. The alphabetical presentation does not place one tied district ahead of another.
Niche’s current methodology combines academics with factors including teachers, school culture and diversity, family surveys, resources, activities and sports.
Its overall grades therefore represent several dimensions of school experience beyond standardized-test results.
Geography also complicates a county comparison. Polk County’s school-district mapping identifies Amity, Sheridan and Willamina districts within that county as well.
Their districtwide statistics describe students across their service areas, rather than Yamhill County residents alone.
The staffing figures require similar care: Student-teacher ratios compare enrollment with full-time-equivalent teachers. They are not average class sizes and do not show how many students will sit in a particular child’s classroom.
