Wingo Elementary School, Wingo KY

Original Research by School Decision on Wingo Elementary School

Wingo Elementary School serves the rural community of Wingo in Graves County, Kentucky, from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Wingo itself is a small, primarily residential village that grew up around a railroad stop, with a highway corridor running through its center and a historic caboose on display. The school operates as a regular public school within the Graves County district, and it sits on its own campus near the heart of town, where civic and school life overlap in the way they do in a place this size.

The student body is predominantly White, with a modest share of Hispanic and Black students, and a small number of students identifying with two or more races. About three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a share that signals a community with significant economic need. The school’s enrollment is moderate for an elementary serving these grade levels, and classes appear to be of a size that allows individual attention.

State testing results from the latest available year show a mixed picture. In reading, proficiency rates across the tested grades are solid, with the strongest showing from fourth graders, where a large majority scored at or above the state standard. The third- and fifth-grade cohorts also turned in respectable results, and the sixth-grade reading result was suppressed, meaning the number of students was too small to report publicly. In math, the school’s performance is less consistent. Third, fourth, and sixth graders posted decent proficiency rates, but fifth graders fell well short of that mark. Science testing at fourth grade and social studies testing at fifth grade both landed below half of students proficient, a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school.

When placed against the other districts in Graves County, Wingo Elementary’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, meaning the school performs higher than the median among the county’s districts on the subjects and grades tested. That is a notable strength given the level of student poverty, which research often associates with lower outcomes.

Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and we did not find data on chronic absenteeism, course access, or staffing ratios. The district, Graves County, does not appear to have undergone any major parent-relevant changes recently, based on available information.

For a parent considering this school, the central question is fit. The school serves a small, rural, low-wealth community where families value affordability — home prices and rents in the area are below the state and national medians. Academically, reading instruction is a clear plus, with strong proficiency across most grades. Math and science show more variability, and the fifth-grade math result in particular is a point the school may be working to address. The student body is fairly homogeneous, and the school has a high rate of economic disadvantage. If a parent values a small-town environment with a solid core of reading instruction and a school that holds its own relative to its county peers, Wingo Elementary offers that. A family looking for strong science and social studies performance or consistently high math scores across every elementary grade would want to ask the school how those areas are being developed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 64% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 64% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 59% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 71% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 72% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 67% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 72% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median

Science

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 50% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 56% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median

This schoolGraves 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

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income61%Higher-income79%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income67%Higher-income67%0 pp gap