Summary:
Zip code 67661 has three schools in Phillipsburg, serving students from prekindergarten through grade 12: Phillipsburg Elementary (PK–4), Phillipsburg Middle (5–8), and Phillipsburg High (9–12). The clearest concern is High: in 2025–26, its all-grades proficiency was below the state rate in ELA by 12 points, in math by 1 point, and in science by 11 points.
Elementary leads the area in 2025–26 ELA and math, with 61% and 52% proficient—15 and 11 points above state rates. Middle is the strongest school in the available science results, at 45%, 7 points above the state; its ELA and math rates were 49% and 48%, also above state rates by 3 and 7 points. High had the lowest results in all three available comparisons: 34% in ELA, 40% in math, and 27% in science. Middle’s ELA also varies considerably by grade: grade 6 was 13 points above the state, while grade 7 was 10 points below.
Recent results show different directions rather than a shared area-wide trend. Middle’s ELA and math each rose by about 5 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while Elementary fell by 7 points in ELA and 3 in math; High fell by 7 in ELA and 1 in math. SchoolDigger’s rank-history percentile rose for Middle, from 31 to 62, but fell for High, from 84 to 44; Elementary moved from 78 to 74 after reaching 82. High’s 95% graduation rate in 2023–24 is a bright spot, even as its test results lag. Its student–teacher ratio was 8.5 and its free/reduced-lunch rate was 43%, compared with ratios of 11.3 and 11.7 and rates of 46% and 53% at Elementary and Middle; these are context, not explanations for results. High absenteeism (22%) also exceeded the state’s 18%, while Elementary and Middle were each at 10%. Results should be compared with care because the schools serve different grades and have enrollments of 173 to 233.
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