Summary
Phillips High is a small public high school in Raleigh, NC, serving just 123 students in grades 9–12 within the Wake County Schools district. The student body is almost entirely economically disadvantaged, with roughly 96% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school also has an unusually low student-teacher ratio of 4.4 to 1 and spends far more per student than nearby schools — about $35,300 per pupil in 2018–2019, compared with roughly $9,000 at larger schools such as Enloe High or Needham Broughton High. This mix of small classes, high per-student spending, and very high student need suggests Phillips operates more like a specialized or alternative school than a traditional comprehensive high school.
Academically, the school scores well below Wake County averages on state End-of-Course tests. In 2025–2026, just 27% of students were proficient in Biology, 48.6% in English II, and 26.7% in Math III, compared with district averages of 69.1%, 75.7%, and 76.4%. Schools with far lower poverty rates post proficiency rates roughly 35–40 percentage points higher. The school also faces a major attendance challenge: 63.1% of students were chronically absent in 2024–2025, about three times the district rate. Its 72.4% graduation rate trails Wake County’s 91.3% overall, yet Phillips holds up reasonably well against another high-need school, Central Wake High School, which has a 23.0% graduation rate and just 5.1% Biology proficiency.
There are some signs of momentum. Graduation has climbed from 61.4% two years earlier to 72.4%, English II proficiency more than doubled from 21.2% to 48.6% in one year, and the school’s statewide rank improved from the 4th percentile to the 11th percentile. Chronic absenteeism, however, remains stuck near 60%, and that is the biggest obstacle to continued progress. Phillips is a resource-intensive school working against deep-rooted challenges, but its recent upward trend offers cautious hope for parents and educators.
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