Park City Elementary School, Park City KY

Original Research by School Decision on Park City Elementary School

Park City Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the small town of Park City, Kentucky, as part of the Barren County school system. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and sits within a community that bills itself as the gateway to Mammoth Cave National Park. The town blends a quiet residential character with tourism-oriented businesses such as local diners and the nearby Diamond Caverns. Interstate 65 exit 48 is the primary access point, and a CSX rail line runs through the town center. The school itself is the city's only elementary campus; for middle and high school, students attend schools in Glasgow, the county seat about a dozen miles away.

The student body is modest in size for an elementary school serving a small town. The vast majority of students are white, with smaller shares identifying as Hispanic or two or more races. A substantial share of families qualify for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the economic context of the area. Home values in Park City are below the state median, and the housing market has seen very modest recent change. The town is growing slowly, with no major new developments identified in publicly available information. Park City is a certified Kentucky Trail Town, offering walking and biking trails, pocket parks, and a trailhead for the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail, which provides outdoor recreational access but a relatively limited array of daily commercial amenities.

On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, performance varied by subject and grade level. In mathematics, proficiency rates rose from the lower elementary grades to the upper ones, with a wider range across grades. In English language arts, proficiency was somewhat consistent across grades three through six, though it varied. Science results were available for grade four, and social studies results for grade five. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint when compared to other districts in Barren County. This means that, relative to the three districts in the county, Park City Elementary's academic results are lower than the middle of the range. A parent or resident may want to ask the school about strategies for improving student outcomes in the early grades. Information on special education and English learner populations was not available in the data, nor were details on programs such as gifted or intervention services, so those are gaps a family might wish to explore directly.

No recent district-wide policy changes, curriculum updates, or facility projects were reported in publicly available sources for Barren County Schools, so the district context appears stable from the outside. The school itself operates as a typical neighborhood elementary school, drawing its enrollment from the immediate area and feeding into secondary schools in Glasgow. For a family considering Park City, the school offers a familiar small-town elementary experience with outdoor amenities nearby, but the academic results suggest that a closer look at instructional support and student progress would be worthwhile. The town's role as a tourism gateway means some amenities cater to visitors rather than daily residents, and secondary schooling requires a commute. Overall, Park City Elementary serves its local community in a setting that is quiet, slow-growing, and closely tied to the region's natural attractions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 318%

School 18% · District 38% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 39% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 48% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 56% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 39% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 46% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 47% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 58% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Science

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 36% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 38% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolBarren County, 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-income18%Higher-income58%40 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income30%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income50%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income40%14 pp gap