The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in Math. The lowest is 58% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Southwest Calloway Elementary School
Southwest Calloway Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Calloway County school district. The school sits on Wiswell Road, outside the Murray city limits, in the rural part of the county. Murray itself is a college town built around Murray State University, with a historic courthouse square downtown and a Main Street corridor that connects the campus to the commercial center. It is one of the faster-growing communities in Kentucky, with a substantial student population that shapes the local housing market, where owner-occupied rates are lower than what is typical for a town its size because so many residents rent.
The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with small shares of students who are Hispanic, two or more races, Black, or American Indian or Alaska Native. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school within a familiar economic profile for a rural Kentucky elementary school.
On the Kentucky Summative Assessment, the school’s proficiency rates rose as students moved through the grades. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was solid in third grade, stronger in fourth grade, and at its highest in fifth grade. In reading, the same upward pattern appeared, with the fourth-grade cohort performing the strongest. Fifth-grade social studies results were in line with the school’s better reading outcomes. The fourth-grade science results were the lowest of any tested subject and grade, falling below the school’s own averages in math and reading at that level. A parent may want to ask the school how science instruction is structured and whether there are particular resources or supports aimed at that grade.
When measured against the other districts within Calloway County, Southwest Calloway Elementary’s combined proficiency across all tested subjects and grades placed it in the top quartile. That comparison set is narrow--there are only two districts in the county--so the positioning is relative to one other system. The school itself is part of the county district, not the separate Murray Independent district that serves students inside the city limits. The school’s proficiency index was the highest among the two districts for elementary-level performance.
The school enrolls a moderate-sized student body for an elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade. Grade enrollments are fairly even across the six grades, with no grade significantly larger or smaller than the others, which suggests stable neighborhood attendance patterns rather than a school absorbing rapid enrollment swings.
No data was available on special education identification rates or English learner counts, so a reader cannot assess the school’s profile on those dimensions from this information. Discipline data, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism rates were also not reported. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary adjustments, leadership turnover, or program launches, though that may reflect a gap in available search results rather than an absence of activity.
The community context matters for families weighing where to live. Murray offers a traditional small-city downtown, a farmers market, and a university that anchors the local economy and cultural life. Housing values in the school’s ZIP code area have been modest relative to state and national benchmarks, and the local rental market reflects the large number of university-associated tenants. The broader county district serves the area around Murray, so families living outside the city limits but within the county attend this school rather than the Murray Independent schools. The school itself sits on a rural road, and the commute to downtown Murray is a short drive.
For a family looking at this school, the academic picture is one of solid elementary performance that strengthens in the upper grades, with a particular soft spot in fourth-grade science that warrants a conversation with the principal. The student body is economically mixed and racially homogeneous. The setting is rural but adjacent to a growing college town with amenities, and the district is the larger of the two systems serving the county, which may matter for a family comparing school options in the area.
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