The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Math. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Philip Jr. High - 03
Philip Jr. High sits in the small county seat of Philip, a rural community at the crossroads of US Highway 14 and SD Highway 73 in western South Dakota. The town is compact, centered on its highway crossroads and the Bad River, with agriculture as its primary industry. Grain elevators, a livestock auction, and a veterinary clinic serve the surrounding farms and ranches, while Scotchman Industries, a metal fabrication machinery manufacturer, and Philip Health Services anchor the local economy. The Haakon County Courthouse doubles as a civic anchor and home to city offices. The community holds annual events like Scotty Philip Days in August and the Philip Match Bronc Ride in June. Publicly reported sources note a gradual population decline over recent census cycles, even as the city describes business and agricultural growth and a new school building.
The school serves grades six through eight within Haakon School District 27-1, the district known locally as the Philip Scotties. Enrollment is small, consistent with what one would expect for a middle school in a town of this size, with the eighth grade being the largest of the three. The student body is nearly entirely white, with a small number of students identified as two or more races and one student identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is low, well below what many rural and small-town schools report, which suggests a community where economic need, as measured by this indicator, is limited. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
On state assessments, Philip Jr. High's results paint a mixed but generally solid picture. Math proficiency is the school's clear strength, with a majority of tested students meeting or exceeding the state proficiency standard. English language arts sits near the middle, with roughly half of tested students proficient. Science is the soft spot, with fewer than half of tested students reaching proficiency, though far fewer students were tested in science than in math or ELA, which likely reflects the state testing only certain grade levels in that subject. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly how science instruction is sequenced across the middle grades. Participation was full across all three subjects, which means the results reflect the whole tested population rather than a partial sample.
The school does not have multi-year trend data available, so it is not possible to say from the provided information whether these proficiency levels represent improvement, decline, or stability. Average scale scores were also missing, which limits the ability to describe how students are performing beyond the proficiency threshold. No data on staffing, course access, discipline, or attendance was provided, and no civil rights data was available. Information on specialized programs, extracurriculars, or academic pathways was not included. Title I status and school type were not reported, and the school is neither a charter nor a magnet school.
No neighbor comparison fact-set was available for this school, so it could not be positioned against nearby districts or schools in its county. Housing values and rents were not provided in the data, so the cost of living near the school could not be characterized. The district brief turned up little of lasting impact regarding recent changes, so there is nothing to report on that front.
What the available evidence does say is this. Philip Jr. High is a small, rural middle school serving a fairly homogeneous student body in a tight-knit agricultural community. Its math results are a genuine strength. Its ELA results are middling but adequate. Its science results are a weak area that a family would want to ask about. The low measured poverty rate and full participation on assessments suggest a school where most students are present and engaged, and where economic barriers to learning are comparatively few. For a family already in or drawn to the Philip area, the school appears to provide a steady if compact academic setting, with clear room to strengthen science outcomes.
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