Summary:
Zip code 66861 has one high school, Marion High, serving grades 9–12 and enrolling 159 students, so the available picture is of this school rather than a comparison among area schools. The most important finding is that in 2025–2026 Marion was above state proficiency rates in ELA and math—by 4 and 12 percentage points—while science was just under the state rate.
Marion High is both the top and bottom school in the list by default; compared with the state, math is its strongest all-grades subject, 12 points above, while science is its weakest, less than 1 point below. The grade-level results were also above their matching state rates: 10th-grade ELA by 9 points, 10th-grade math by 16 points, and 11th-grade science by 8 points. SchoolDigger ranked Marion High 53rd of 340 schools, at the 84th percentile with 4 stars; it ranked the Marion-Florence district 34th of 268, at the 87th percentile with 4 stars. Attendance is another bright spot: chronic absenteeism was 9%, versus 13% in the district and 18% statewide.
Marion’s ELA and math results rose substantially from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: ELA increased 12 points and math 17, compared with state increases of 1 and 2 points. Its ELA position shifted from 7 points below the state to 4 points above; math moved from 3 points below to 12 points above. SchoolDigger’s school ranking also improved from 155th in 2024–2025 to 53rd in 2025–2026, a rise of 102 places, after ranking 71st in 2023–2024. Other measures are mixed: graduation was 88%, equal to the district and 2 points below the state, while dropout was 0.6%, compared with 0.4% in the district and 1.2% statewide. The reported free/reduced-lunch rate was 38%, the student-teacher ratio was 10, and per-student spending was $18,892.
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