A Portland field guide to every kind of school

Find the school for the kid who

That kid has 24 schools waiting in Outdoor & Nature-Based.

225 schools around Portland, public and private, enormous and tiny, all held to the same standard. Read cover to cover, written up one at a time, and never ranked. Because your kid is not an input, and a good school is not a letter grade.

Take the 2-minute quiz Browse all schools, A to Z

The Collections

13 written guides, each to one kind of schooling in Portland. Find yours by name, or by the moment you're in.

slide the shelf, there are 15

Find Your Fit

Not sure what kind of school you're even looking for.

the 2-minute quiz

Language Immersion

You want 2 languages by 5th grade.

42 schools

Outdoor & Nature-Based

Because learning is all-weather.

24 schools

Different Learners, Different Paths

The usual classroom isn't working.

30 schools

Project-Based & Progressive

Your kid asks 400 questions a day.

26 schools

Faith-Based & Religious

You want faith in your school day.

53 schools

Homeschool Hybrid & Co-ops

5-day drop-off is not going to work.

30 schools

Montessori & Waldorf

They pour their own milk at 3.

17 schools

Arts-Focused

Happiest on a stage or in a studio.

19 schools

STEM & Maker

Robots out of recycling, again.

21 schools

Lottery Schools

Free to apply, chosen by drawing.

47 schools

Online & Virtual

School lives in the kitchen this year.

6 programs, growing

College Prep

Wants the harder class, every time.

26 schools

Charter Schools

You want public school, just not the default one.

27 schools

Every School

You just moved here mid-year, or you'd rather see the whole territory at once.

225 schools, A to Z

The numbers, counted by hand

Born at a kitchen table with 40 tabs open. Every kind of school and every kind of story, so you can choose with confidence.

225
schools & programs

Public, private, charter, micro, forest, and homeschool hybrids, only here, all together. As we learn of new (and new to us) schools, we add them.

225
columns per school

One working ledger row per school, refreshed when the state releases new numbers, schools post deadlines and tuition numbers, or we get news to share.

0
rankings

Rating sites grade schools in ways that mostly track income. This guide describes, you decide. We never copy or reuse stale numbers from aggregators like GreatSchools or Niche.

50+
filters & fit factors

Because no two kids, and no two school runs, are the same.

The Primerly field report · ✓ school-verified

Abernethy Elementary School

the neighborhood school with kindness at recess

K–5
grades
282
students
19:1
ratio
Free
tuition
So, tell me about the basics
A day hereThe campusWho goes hereThe supportWhat comes afterGetting in

Open the full field report →

Who goes here
White 47%Hispanic/Latino 23%Multiracial 12%+ 3 more
What comes after
On-time graduation
91%
College going
62%
Oregon average. Both beat the state.

Field Notes · pinned this season

Stories from Portland's education landscape. Every piece opens a real door: a program you can enroll in, a person you can call, a place you can visit.

Illustration for the featured story

No. 1 · the feature

People to Know

The advocate who reads the paperwork so you don't have to

IEPs, 504 plans, and IFSPs run on systems most families meet for the first time under pressure. Theresa Jahangir helps Portland parents walk into those meetings prepared, and she starts with a free consultation.

Read the story

Honest Guides

What the seismic reports actually say about your school

How to read the district's findings without alarm or denial.

coming soon

School Spotlights

Oregon's 23 virtual charters, sorted

Free, public, and online. Who runs each one, and which fit a homeschool rhythm.

coming soon

The Calendar

A calm person's guide to lottery season

Which programs use lotteries, when applications open, and what the odds mean.

coming soon

New dispatches land in the newsletter first, then here.

A note from the kitchen table

I started Primerly because I was the parent with 40 tabs open at midnight, trying to figure out whether a "B+" from a rating site meant anything about whether my kid would be okay. It didn't. The grade mostly measured demographics, and the sites mostly copied each other.

So I built the thing I needed: every school around Portland, read closely, written up honestly, and held to the same standard whether it charges 30,000 dollars a year or nothing at all. Nobody paid to be here. Nothing is ranked. The guide tries to tell the truth in plain language and then gets out of your way.

If you'd like company while you look, the School Tour Primer is free, along with deadlines and local notes as the year turns.

Courtney

founder and keeper of Primerly, Portland

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