Burgin Independent School, Burgin KY

Original Research by School Decision on Burgin Independent School

Burgin Independent School is the only public school serving the small, rural city of Burgin in Mercer County. It is a regular public school that teaches students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, all on a single campus along Main Street. The city itself calls itself “A Friendly Little City,” and the school operates as the unifying institution for a community that is tight-knit and slow-growing. The district has recently added a full-time School Resource Officer, a long-held priority made possible by a state funding increase, and launched Burgin Family Day, a monthly schoolwide initiative that pairs older and younger students for mentorship and character-building activities. Those are the kind of structural changes a parent would notice: a visible adult safety presence and a deliberate effort to build relationships across grades.

On state assessments, the academic picture is uneven across grade levels and subjects, which is common for a school of this size where each grade’s results can shift noticeably from year to year. In the elementary grades, the share of students meeting proficiency benchmarks in both reading and math is solid, with several of those grades showing a strong majority at or above the state’s proficiency standard. That pattern holds for fourth-grade science as well. As students move into middle school, performance becomes more variable. The sixth and seventh grades continue to show decent results in reading and math, but eighth grade represents a notable soft spot, with a much smaller share of students reaching proficiency in math, reading, and social studies. Seventh-grade science also shows a low proficiency rate. The overall proficiency picture, when averaged across all tested subjects and grades, places Burgin in the top portion among the two districts in Mercer County. That comparison is limited to a small field, but it indicates that the school is performing at the stronger end locally.

The student body is small, with enrollment under six hundred, and roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The population is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic, multiracial, Black, Asian, and Native American students. Data on the share of students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the reporting, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

The school serves high school grades through twelfth, but a four-year graduation rate was not reported in the available data. That is not unusual for a small school where year-to-year counts are low and reporting can be suppressed, but families considering Burgin for the upper grades will want to inquire about completion rates and college or career pathways. No detailed program offerings were found in the data, so information on Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career and technical education options would need to come from the school’s website or a call to the office.

Burgin Independent School fits a family looking for a community-centered rural school where the same building houses children from kindergarten through high school, and where the small size encourages cross-age connections. The elementary academic foundation is solid, middle school results are more mixed, and the high school piece is less documented in the available metrics. The town itself is quiet and very slowly growing, with limited commercial activity and a strong sense of place. For a resident or prospective parent, the school’s value lies largely in its role as the heart of that small community, reinforced by recent intentional efforts to build school culture and campus safety.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 30 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

314 schools plotted. 35 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 13 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 766%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 6 pts below state median

This schoolBurgin Independent, 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-income52%Higher-income81%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income55%Higher-income65%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income63%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income67%20 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income71%Higher-income62%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income71%Higher-income76%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income65%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income63%35 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income56%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income62%12 pp gap