Southern Elementary School, Falmouth KY

Original Research by School Decision on Southern Elementary School

Southern Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade as one of the regular public elementary schools in the Pendleton County district. It is located in Falmouth, Kentucky, a small rural county seat at the confluence of the Licking River forks, where the downtown is compact along Main Street and residential streets fan outward. The school’s setting is integrated into this small-town fabric rather than set apart on a distant campus, and students live in Falmouth and the surrounding rural parts of the county.

The student body is about the size one would expect for a K-5 school serving a rural county seat and its surrounding area. Enrollment draws from a community where a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the lower median household income that the 2023–2024 estimates show for Falmouth. Racially, the school is predominantly white, with small numbers of students who identify as Black, Hispanic, or of two or more races. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the reporting, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

Academically, the most recent state assessment results for grades three through five show a mixed picture. In mathematics, the share of students scoring proficient or above varied by grade. The lower elementary grades had a smaller share reaching proficiency than the upper grades, where roughly two out of every five students met the mark. Reading performance also varied: fourth graders had a stronger showing than third and fifth graders, each of which had about three in ten students scoring proficient. Science results for fourth graders and social studies results for fifth graders followed a similar pattern, with about a third or fewer students at the proficient level. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to consider. Overall, proficiency rates across subjects and grades sit at a modest level, and families may wish to discuss with the school how it supports students who are not yet meeting the state standard.

Falmouth itself is a community with a recent history of slight population decline, limited commercial development, and no major employers identified beyond local government and schools. Housing values in the area are well below the national median, and the typical home costs less than what one would find in Kentucky as a whole, making the area relatively affordable. The town has experienced natural disasters, including major floods, that have shaped its recovery efforts. No major new housing developments or commercial projects were found in the public record, and the local economy offers limited employment opportunities. For parents, this means the school serves a stable but economically modest community where the local job base is thin and commuting to larger towns may be necessary.

No district-level changes that would directly affect families were identified in the search for parent-relevant updates. Southern Elementary is a straightforward rural elementary school. It fits families who want a small-town setting with a close-knit feel, who are comfortable with a largely homogeneous student population, and who are realistic about academic outcomes that are not among the highest in the state. Parents who value strong student support structures and want to understand how the school addresses its proficiency gaps should reach out to the principal or teaching staff for more specifics.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 36% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 47% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 49% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 37% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 52% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 44% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median

Science

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 37% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 33% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median

This schoolPendleton 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-income30%Higher-income35%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income57%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income50%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income52%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income58%27 pp gap