Phillipsburg

Phillipsburg Elementary (PK–4), Phillipsburg Middle (grades 5–8) and Phillipsburg High (grades 9–12) serve 585 students across the area. Their 2025–26 results show a mix of strong and weaker outcomes rather than a consistent pattern across schools. The most important concern is High: its all-grades proficiency was below the state in ELA and science, and just below it in math.

Elementary stands out for ELA and math, with 61% proficiency in ELA and 52% in math—15 and 11 percentage points above the state, respectively. Middle leads the reported science results at 45%, compared with High’s 27%, and was above the state in all three reported subjects. High had the lowest ELA result at 34%, 12 points below the state, and its science result was 11 points below; its 40% math result was only 1 point below the state. The gap between Elementary and High was 27 points in ELA and 12 points in math.

Recent trends favor Middle, while High’s results and relative ranking have weakened. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, Middle improved by 5 points in both ELA and math; Elementary and High each fell by about 7 points in ELA. Across all three schools, the average ELA advantage over the state narrowed from 7 points to 2, and the math advantage narrowed from 8 points to 6. SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking rose for Middle, from 31 to 62, but fell for High, from 84 to 44; Elementary moved from 78 to 74. Other measures add context: High’s student-teacher ratio was 8.5, the lowest of the three, and its 2023–24 graduation rate was 95%, above the state’s 90%. However, its chronic absenteeism was 22%, compared with 18% statewide and about 10% at each of the other schools.