Phillips Middle

Phillips Middle is a 6–8 school serving 144 students in Phillips, a small community in north-central Wisconsin, and is part of the Phillips School District. In 2025–2026 it ranked 351st of 643 Wisconsin middle schools, placing it in the 45th percentile with 2 stars. The school has been moving steadily upward: it sat in the 23rd percentile in 2022–2023, then the 30th, 42nd, and 45th. That is well above its own district, which ranks 338th of 432 districts, in the 22nd percentile with 1 star — making Phillips Middle a relative bright spot locally.

The closest comparison is Prentice Middle, 11.92 miles away in Prentice, which serves grades 5–8 with 90 students and belongs to the Prentice School District. Prentice has slipped from the 60th percentile in 2023–2024 to 54th and then 34th, so Phillips has now overtaken it overall and in most tested subjects. Math is a strength: Math 7 scored 61.70% and Math 8 scored 58.33%, both above state averages of 55.67% and 53.67%, and 6th-grade ELA reached 63.83% versus 54.95% statewide. The weaker spots are 8th-grade social studies at 50.00% against 64.63% statewide, and upper-grade ELA — ELA 8 was 45.83% versus 54.38% state — a drop-off from 6th grade that parents may want to ask about.

Attendance is a genuine strength: chronic absenteeism was 13.3%, below the state's 17.3% and far below the district's 23.1%, and dropout was 0.0% in the last two reported years. Classes are small (a 10.1 student-teacher ratio) and per-student spending is $16,339, both favorable compared with Prentice Middle. Effectiveness with special education students improved dramatically, from the 15th percentile to the 74th. Because enrollment is small, single-year swings in subject scores can be misleading, so watch the multi-year trend.