Best Public Schools in Zip Code 44656

ZIP code 44656 (Zoarville, Ohio) is served by two schools — Tuscarawas Valley Elementary School (PK–6, 673 students) and Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School (grades 7–12, 555 students) — both part of the single Tuscarawas Valley Local district, sitting on adjacent parcels on Tusky Valley Rd NE and enrolling 1,228 students combined. Note that grades 7–8 are physically housed in the "Middle-High" building, which is typed as a High school, so the district functions as elementary plus secondary.

The middle-high school is the standout on every measure in the data. It ranked in the 87th percentile statewide in 2025‑26, following a 90th-percentile, 5-star year in 2024‑25, and has never fallen below the 84th percentile in three years. It scored above the state on all 11 tested subjects in both years — 22 of 22 — with the widest gaps in Geometry (+30.0 points), 8th-grade Math (+28.4), Biology (+21.0) and American Government (+19.9), and it posted a 100% graduation rate in 2025‑26. The elementary school is still positive, with 7 of 9 tests above the state in 2025‑26 and 9 of 9 the year before, but its rank has slipped three straight years (75th → 70th → 63rd percentile) and its star rating fell from 4★ to 3★ — the one clear negative trajectory here.

Elementary English Language Arts is the weakest thread: grade 4 (56.3 vs. 61.8 state) and grade 6 (53.8 vs. 56.0) are the only two of 40 school-level test records where either school fell below the state, and both dropped sharply year over year. Math, by contrast, is a consistent strength at every level. Attendance runs opposite to achievement: the elementary's 6.0% chronic absenteeism is lower than the middle-high's 9.6%, and the middle-high sits above its own district's 7.5%. Two data limits matter — free/reduced lunch is blank, and the only spending figures date to 2018‑19 ($10,426 per student at the middle-high vs. $8,684 at the elementary). The elementary's reported student-teacher ratio of 134.6 is implausible and should not be read as a real staffing figure; the middle-high's 16.3 is normal.