Schools in Zip Code 62281

Schools in zip code 62281 include two schools in the same district: Triad Middle School, serving grades 6–8, and St Jacob Elementary School, serving pre-K–5. In 2025–26, both schools’ all-grade results were well above state results: their average was 70% in ELA, 14 points above the state, and 55% in math, 15 points above it. The clearest area-wide finding is that both schools perform strongly overall, with little difference between them.

Triad Middle School edged ahead in the all-grade results, scoring 71% in ELA versus 69% at St Jacob Elementary School; in math, both rounded to 55%. The most striking grade-level result was at St Jacob, where fourth-grade ELA reached 85%, 30 points above the state. Its fifth-grade ELA result was 62%, 7 points above the state but 9 points below the district. St Jacob’s fourth-grade math was also strong at 61%, 19 points above the state, while third-grade math was 53%, 4 points above. At Triad, seventh-grade ELA was 62%, 5 points above the state, compared with sixth-grade ELA at 78%, 19 points above. Grade-level results are best compared with state results for the same grade, not with the other school’s different grades.

Recent changes were mixed: Triad rose 7 points in ELA and 2 in math from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while St Jacob fell 4 points in each subject. Because state scores also increased, the schools’ average advantage narrowed by about 2 points in both subjects. SchoolDigger gives both schools four stars for 2025–26; its percentile ranking declined from 85 to 75 for Triad and from 83 to 71 for St Jacob. In 2024–25, their student–teacher ratios were 16.3 at Triad and 15.6 at St Jacob, and both reported 17% free/reduced lunch eligible. These figures offer context, not an explanation for the test results.