Summary:
Zip code 83263 contains exactly one middle school, Preston Junior High School, serving grades 6 through 8 with approximately 540 students in the Preston Joint District.
Preston Junior High School is the only middle school in this zip code, which means all district-level grade comparisons reflect the school's own performance. The school has several notable strengths: chronic absenteeism is exceptionally low at just 7.2%, compared to 8.8% for the Preston Joint District and 13.8% statewide. Science proficiency in 8th grade reaches 45.8%, exceeding the state average of 42.9%. English Language Arts is also competitive, with an overall proficiency of 54.6% versus the state's 54.0%, and 7th grade ELA stands out as the school's strongest tested subject at 58.9%. Nearly half of the student body (45.37%) qualifies for free or reduced lunch, giving important context to these results.
However, math is the school's most pressing challenge. Overall math proficiency is just 32.5%, which trails both the district (39.0%) and the state (43.1%) by substantial margins. The gap widens by grade level, with proficiency declining from 35.1% in 6th grade to 31.7% in 7th grade and 30.5% in 8th grade. The school also experienced year-over-year declines across all subjects, with math dropping 6.3 points, ELA dropping 3.2 points, and science dropping 2.0 points. Reflecting these trends, the school's statewide ranking has steadily declined from the 62nd percentile in 2023–2024 to the 51st percentile in 2024–2025 and now the 40th percentile in 2025–2026. With a student-teacher ratio of 18.8 and per-student spending of $5,263, the school's strong attendance and above-average science performance suggest solid foundations, but targeted support in mathematics—particularly in the upper grades—represents the clearest opportunity for improvement.
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