Fern Creek Elementary, Louisville KY

Original Research by School Decision on Fern Creek Elementary

Fern Creek Elementary is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Louisville’s Jefferson County Public Schools. It sits in the Fern Creek area, a suburban pocket of Louisville, a city that merged with Jefferson County years ago to create a consolidated government. Louisville itself is spread out and car-dependent outside the urban core, with a low population density for a city of its size. Its economy is anchored by UPS’s worldwide air-cargo hub, the health insurer Humana, and Yum! Brands, among others. Housing in the Fern Creek zip code is moderately priced for the region, and rents have risen recently, though the area remains more affordable than parts of the city closer to downtown.

The school enrolls a sizable number of students for an elementary, with a diverse student body. White, Black, and Hispanic students each make up roughly a quarter of the population, with a meaningful share of Asian students and a smaller group of multiracial students. A substantial portion of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a mix of household incomes.

Fern Creek’s state testing results, from the Kentucky Summative Assessment, show that proficiency rates across grades three through five are below what many families would hope for. In math, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above is around 30 percent in third and fourth grade and lower in fifth. In English language arts, the pattern is similar, with roughly 30 percent proficient in third and fourth grade and slightly higher in fifth. Science and social studies results, tested in fourth and fifth grade respectively, are also low. These numbers place the school in the bottom quartile of districts within Jefferson County for overall proficiency. This pattern is a soft spot, and a parent considering Fern Creek would likely want to learn more from the school about the strategies and supports in place to raise achievement.

Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, and course access were not available in the information provided, so those dimensions cannot be described here. The district brief did not turn up any recent parent-relevant changes, though the absence of publicly reported developments does not mean none are happening.

What Fern Creek offers is a neighborhood school environment with a diverse peer group in a part of Louisville that is well-established, with a mix of older homes and newer subdivisions. The school is not a charter or magnet, and no Title I status was reported in the data we worked with. Families looking at Fern Creek should weigh its modest academic results against the context of a large urban district where many elementary schools face similar challenges. The school’s size allows for grade-level sections that give students a stable cohort of classmates from kindergarten through fifth grade. A parent interested in this school would be wise to visit, talk with the principal about how the school is working to improve learning outcomes, and see whether the day-to-day classroom experience matches what they want for their child.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 13 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 31% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 30% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 34% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 37% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 38% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 25% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 27% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolJefferson 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-income27%Higher-income38%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income48%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income44%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income34%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income33%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income29%9 pp gap