Benson Polytechnic High School

Benson Polytechnic High School is a high school of average-sized scale in Portland, Oregon, run under Portland SD 1J, works with 896 students in grades 9 through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 42% bigger than the state mean of about 630.

Portland SD 1J comprises 86 schools with combined enrollment of 41,894 students; Benson Polytechnic High School is among them.

Looking at the student body, Benson Polytechnic High School reports that the most-represented group is White (44%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school reports 26% Hispanic, 12% multiracial, 10% Black, 5% Asian. That is meaningfully less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 68%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school reports having 58 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 19.8:1 average. An estimated 42% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Multnomah County (around 75%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Benson Polytechnic High School falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 46.3%; this one comes in at 29.8%, -16.4 points off the demographic line.

In the area at large, Multnomah County reports that median household income runs about $88,766, roughly 49% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Multnomah County's 169 public schools (combined enrollment of about 81,096 students), Benson Polytechnic High School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Alliance High School, roughly 0.1 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Benson Polytechnic High School comes 7th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 50.7%.

Geographically, the school is in a downtown area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 13%: 1,027 students in 2018 compared to 896 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 39% to 44% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 17.7:1 in 2018 to 15.4:1 in 2025.

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