The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 29% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Stanford Elementary School
Stanford Elementary School serves the town of Stanford, the historic county seat of Lincoln County, for students in preschool through fifth grade. The school sits in a compact small town where civic life is organized around a courthouse square and a traditional Main Street. Stanford’s population has grown modestly in recent years, and the town has emphasized downtown revitalization while preserving its pioneer-era character. The school is part of the Lincoln County district, for which the most recent search found little publicly reported about recent district-level changes or priorities.
The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of students who identify as Hispanic, Black, Asian, or multiracial. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the community’s economic profile. The school enrolls roughly a few hundred students across grades PK through 5, with the largest numbers in the early primary years and a slightly smaller cohort in grade 3. The school does not serve grades beyond 5, so there is no high school graduation rate or secondary-level program data to consider.
On Kentucky’s state assessments for the most recent testing year, proficiency rates in reading and math vary by grade. In third grade, about half of students scored at the proficient level or above in reading, while a smaller share did so in math. Fourth-grade reading proficiency was lower, and math proficiency remained in a similar range. Fifth graders posted stronger results in reading, with more than half reaching proficiency, and math proficiency at that grade was higher than in the earlier grades but still below the reading mark. In science, assessed in grade 4, roughly a quarter of students met proficiency. In social studies, assessed in grade 5, about a third of students scored proficient or above. The school does not report chronic absenteeism or discipline data in the available records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about attendance patterns and student behavior.
Because Stanford Elementary is the only school in its district with state assessment data that can be compared within Lincoln County, there is no meaningful local comparison to other district schools. The neighbor comparison data notes the cohort is too small to position the school relative to other district elementary schools. A parent looking for a sense of how these proficiency numbers sit against county peers would need to look at school-level results from other districts in the area.
Housing in Stanford is relatively affordable compared to national benchmarks. Home values are lower than the national median, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost is modest. Rents also fall below typical national levels. The town itself is not a high-growth area, which may appeal to families seeking stability rather than rapid change. The compact downtown is walkable in scale, and vehicle traffic from the two US highways that border the town largely bypasses the core.
The school building is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. There is no publicly available information on the range of course offerings, enrichment programs, or staffing ratios. A parent interested in understanding what specialist classes, art or music programs, or intervention supports are available should contact the school directly. The absence of this data does not indicate a deficit, but it means a family cannot evaluate those dimensions from the record alone.
For a family considering Stanford Elementary, the picture is one of a small-town elementary school with a mixed academic profile and a student population that includes a high share of economically disadvantaged children. Reading proficiency is strongest in the upper elementary grades, while math proficiency across all tested grades is a softer area. The town offers a low-cost housing market and a quiet, historically rooted setting. A parent would benefit from a direct conversation with the school about student support services, class sizes, and enrichment opportunities, since those details are not captured in the available data.
See more original research from School Decision →