Best High Schools in Zip Code 45005

ZIP code 45005 — the Franklin and Carlisle area with a Middletown mailing address — contains three high schools serving 1,218 students: Franklin High School (676 students, grades 9–12) and Carlisle High School (415 students, grades 9–12), both comprehensive high schools, plus WCCC @ Atrium (127 students, grades 11–12), a career-technical program. WCCC @ Atrium reports enrollment and staffing but no state ranking, test scores, or graduation rate, so it cannot be compared head-to-head with the other two.

The two comprehensive schools look nearly identical at the summary level but differ underneath. Both earn 3 stars and land within a percentile point of each other (Franklin 57th, Carlisle 58th), and their six-subject average proficiency is almost the same — 69.5% for Franklin versus 69.3% for Carlisle, against a state average of 63.2%. Carlisle is the consistent performer: it has held the 55th–58th percentile for three straight years, graduates 97.4% of students, beats the state in 5 of 6 tested subjects, and posts the top single score in the data at 87.6% proficient in American Government. Franklin is the momentum story, climbing from the 41st to the 57th percentile on double-digit gains in Algebra I (+23.3 points) and English II (+20.2), though its 2-star, 46th-percentile Franklin City district lags the school itself.

Geometry is the shared weakness — both schools fall below the state (Franklin by 3.8 points, Carlisle by 11.2), the only subject where either trails. Other contrasts: Carlisle's student-teacher ratio is 12.2:1 versus Franklin's 21.1:1 on nearly equal per-student spending, and Carlisle's chronic absenteeism (27.8%) runs well above its Carlisle Local district rate (17.1%), while Franklin's (26.1%) matches its district exactly. Franklin's free/reduced-lunch rate is not reported.