Pine Knot Intermediate, Pine Knot KY

Original Research by School Decision on Pine Knot Intermediate

Pine Knot Intermediate serves third through fifth grade in the McCreary County school system, a single countywide district in rural southern Kentucky. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small share of Hispanic students and a trace number of Black and Native American students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the low-income character of the surrounding community.

The school sits in Pine Knot, a small unincorporated census-designated place that has seen steady population loss over recent decades. The area’s major employers are public institutions: a federal prison, a Job Corps training center, and the school district itself. Private industry is thin. Housing values in the area are well below the national median and have declined recently, and household incomes are very low. Parents considering a move here should understand that the economic context is one of limited opportunity outside the public sector. The landscape is rural Appalachian, with residences scattered along roads and a highway commercial strip at the US 27 and KY 92 junction. There is no walkable downtown or traditional street life.

State test results for 2024-25 show a mixed picture. In reading, proficiency rates rose across the grade levels, with the fifth-grade rate notably higher than the third- and fourth-grade rates. Math proficiency followed a similar upward pattern by grade, with the fifth-grade rate higher than fourth, which was higher than third. Science, tested in fourth grade only, showed roughly half of students meeting the proficient bar. Social studies, tested in fifth grade, had a lower proficiency rate. Overall, the school’s performance is strongest in fifth-grade reading and math, while third-grade math and fifth-grade social studies are the softest spots. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports students who arrive below grade level, particularly given the gap between third-grade math and the stronger results by fifth grade.

Because this is an intermediate school serving only grades three through five, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not offer high school programs, so measures like AP, dual credit, or career pathways do not apply here. The comparison data for the district within McCreary County was too thin to produce a meaningful positioning relative to other local districts, since there is only one district in the county. No chronic absenteeism or discipline data was available in the records provided.

The McCreary County district itself did not show any recent major changes in the publicly available information reviewed, so the narrative rests on what the school and community data show directly. For a family deciding whether this school fits, the central facts are the school’s rural, low-income setting, its intermediate grade structure, and its state test results that trend higher in the upper grade levels. Parents looking for a school with a strong fifth-grade reading and math record in a tight-knit rural district will find that here, while those concerned about early-grade math proficiency or the limited local economic opportunities should weigh those factors carefully.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 45% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 57% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 59% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 58% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 68% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Science

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 47% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 45% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median

This schoolMcCreary 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-income53%Higher-income72%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income46%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income64%Higher-income73%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income62%Higher-income65%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income44%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income58%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income64%4 pp gap