The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Science. The lowest is 43% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Phillipsburg Middle
Phillipsburg Middle serves students in fifth through eighth grade in the Phillipsburg school district, a single school system in the north-central Kansas town that is the county seat of Phillips County. The school building sits on 7th Street, set apart from the courthouse square that forms the town’s commercial and civic center. The town itself is a small, declining rural community. Population has been shrinking for decades, and manufacturing anchors like TAMKO Building Products and an ethanol plant provide the main industrial employment alongside county government. The housing market reflects this context: home values are a fraction of the national median, and a typical mortgage payment is low. For a family moving to the area, housing is inexpensive, and the school is the only public option in the district for these grades.
State testing results under the Kansas Assessment Program are reported for grades five through eight in math and English language arts, and for grades five and eight in science. The pattern across subjects and grades is uneven. Fifth graders posted the strongest results in both math and science, with a clear majority of students meeting the state’s proficiency standard. Science proficiency scores in eighth grade drop to a much lower level. In math, sixth graders recorded the weakest showing among all tested groups, while seventh and eighth graders returned about average results. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above is relatively consistent from fifth through eighth grade, with a notable dip in sixth grade. The overall picture is one of variability by grade and subject, with no single trajectory rising or falling uniformly.
Compared to other districts within Phillips County, Phillipsburg Middle lands just above the midpoint in overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades. The county comparison set includes three districts, making small differences hard to interpret with confidence. A parent looking at these scores will see a school where a student’s experience depends heavily on the grade year and the subject.
Enrollment is modest and fits the community’s size. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with very small numbers of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Asian, Black, or multiracial. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that reflects the area’s economic base: stable but not affluent. The school does not report how many students have an Individualized Education Plan or are classified as English learners, so the extent of special education and language support services is unclear from the available data.
The school is not a charter or magnet and has no Title I status listed. No information on discipline rates, staffing ratios, course access, or chronic absenteeism was available. A parent seeking details on class sizes, teacher qualifications, or the availability of electives, intervention programs, or enrichment activities would need to follow up with the school directly. The district’s website, linked through the state, may provide more operational detail.
For a family already living in Phillipsburg or moving to the area for work, Phillipsburg Middle is the only middle-grade public option, and it operates within a district that has experienced no recent publicly reported changes of note. The decision point is less about choosing among schools and more about whether the community and the academic profile fit. The variability in state test results from one grade to the next means a parent may want to track how their own child’s cohort performs and what supports the school puts in place for grades or subjects where proficiency is lower. The town’s population decline and modest economic base suggest a stable but not growing environment, which may appeal to families seeking a quiet, small-town setting with low housing costs.
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