Phillips School, Marietta OH - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Phillips School

Phillips School is a public elementary school serving kindergarten through second grade in Marietta, a small historic river town in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers. The school sits within a community anchored by Marietta College, a healthcare sector led by Marietta Memorial Hospital, and a manufacturing base that includes ferromanganese refining and plastic extrusion. Downtown is compact and walkable, with a paved river trail system and restored brick-paved streets. The wider region has been experiencing slow population decline over two decades, though recent business expansions and infrastructure projects suggest modest stabilization.

Phillips is one of two elementary schools in the Marietta City district now serving K-2 students following a 2021 restructuring that consolidated primary grades across two buildings after closing Harmar and Putnam elementary schools. The school has an enrollment of roughly two hundred students distributed across three grades. A substantial share of the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting economic pressures in the community. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of students identifying as Hispanic or multiracial; demographic data on English learners and special education population shares were not available.

State testing data from 2020-21 shows uneven academic performance across grades and subjects. In reading, third graders showed lower proficiency, fourth graders were closer to the midpoint, and fifth graders achieved notably stronger results. Math proficiency was particularly soft in the oldest grade tested, fifth grade, while third and fourth grade math showed modest improvement from third to fourth. Fifth-grade science proficiency was slightly above half. A single earlier data point from 2016-17 in social studies showed stronger performance. Compared to other district schools in Washington County, Phillips's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile. Parents may want to discuss with the school what instructional shifts or interventions are underway, particularly in mathematics at the upper elementary grades.

The district renewed a multi-mill emergency operating levy in May 2025, securing stable funding for staffing and transportation without a tax increase. This avoids the classroom cuts that might otherwise have followed levy failure, so the operational environment Phillips draws from remains anchored through the next levy cycle. Housing in the area is relatively affordable, with median home values and estimated monthly mortgage costs running well below state and national benchmarks, a feature that shapes the economic makeup of families the school serves.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 453%

School 53% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 532%

School 32% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 449%

School 49% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 566%

School 66% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median

Science

Grade 552%

School 52% · district not reported

▼ 10 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 469%

School 69% · district not reported

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

This schoolMarietta City, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income17%Higher-income56%40 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income67%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income63%Higher-income70%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income17%Higher-income69%52 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income56%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income40%12 pp gap