Central Elementary School, Paintsville KY

Original Research by School Decision on Central Elementary School

CentralElementary School in Paintsville, Kentucky, is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. It is one of the elementary schools within the Johnson County school district. The school is located in a small Appalachian community that has experienced steady population change over the decades, with an economy that was historically tied to coal mining and now includes healthcare, government, and a growing tourism sector around attractions like Paintsville Lake State Park and the U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum.

State assessment results for the most recent school year provide a picture of how students performed across subjects and grade levels. In math, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above varied by grade, with the third-grade cohort showing a lower result than the other tested grades. In English language arts, proficiency rates ranged from roughly half of students to about two-thirds, with the highest rate seen in fifth grade. Fourth-grade science results placed nearly half of students at proficiency, and fifth-grade social studies showed a similar level. Looking across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index placed it in the top quartile relative to other districts in Johnson County, a positive mark for an elementary school of this size.

Enrollment is on the smaller side for a PK-6 school, with classes that are not large. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating that the school serves many families with lower household income. Data on the share of students with disabilities or those learning English was not available in the reported information.

Housing in the Paintsville area is priced well below national and state benchmarks, and values have seen a modest decline in recent months. The community is largely auto-dependent, with a compact downtown core that hosts annual events like the Kentucky Apple Festival. The school sits within a district where no significant recent changes were publicly reported in the materials reviewed.

Because Central Elementary serves only elementary and early middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. A parent considering this school may want to ask the school directly about supports for students who are not yet meeting proficiency targets, particularly in the lower elementary grades, and about programming for students from low-income households. The school’s overall assessment performance relative to the county’s other districts suggests that, for this grade band, it holds a competitive academic profile within its immediate area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 48% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 56% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 53% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 58% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 56% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 62% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 69% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Science

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 47% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 51% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

This schoolJohnson 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-income41%Higher-income70%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income70%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income34%Higher-income50%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income60%8 pp gap