Best Public Schools in Zip Code 74966

Schools in ZIP code 74966 include two Wister schools: Wister Elementary School, serving prekindergarten through grade 8, and Wister High School, serving grades 9–12; there is no separate middle school. The clearest overall concern is that both schools’ latest results fall below state figures in most subjects: Elementary is 18 points below the state in English Language Arts I, 15 below in math, and 12 below in science; High is 22 points below in math, 12 below in science, and 5 below in U.S. History. High’s English result is 5 points above the state’s all-grades figure, but 5 points below the state’s grade 11 result.

The schools have different subject strengths, with no clear overall academic leader. High has the higher all-grades English Language Arts I result, 31% proficient compared with Elementary’s 8%, a 23-point difference; however, the grade-matched comparison puts High 5 points below the state. Elementary leads in all-grades math, 10% to High’s 3%, but both are below the state. Their science results are tied at 18%, 12 points below the state. A notable bright spot at Elementary is grade 3 math: 40% proficient versus 33% statewide. In contrast, its math results in grades 5–8 range from 0% to 12%, each below the corresponding state result.

Results declined from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026 in every subject reported for both schools. The sharpest drop was High’s science result, down 18 points from 36% to 18%; Elementary science fell 6 points, from 24% to 18%. SchoolDigger ranks High higher in 2025–2026—301st of 462, in the 35th percentile with 2 stars—than Elementary, ranked 499th of 626, in the 20th percentile with 1 star; High’s percentile ranking fell 27 points from the previous year, while Elementary’s was nearly unchanged. For context, Elementary has 325 students and a 15.4 student-teacher ratio; High has 155 students and a 13.8 ratio. Both report free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–2025: 51% at Elementary and 47% at High. Because the schools serve different grade spans and have relatively small enrollments, all-grades results are not direct like-for-like comparisons.