West Perry Elementary School, Hazard KY

Original Research by School Decision on West Perry Elementary School

West Perry Elementary School, located in Hazard, Kentucky, serves students from preschool through eighth grade and is part of the Perry County school district. The broader community of Hazard, the county seat, has historically been a coal mining center and continues to function as a regional commercial hub in southeastern Kentucky. After decades of population decline, the city saw a brief period of growth before the devastating Appalachian floods of 2022, which severely damaged infrastructure and housing. Recovery from that disaster remains the dominant local trajectory. The median household income is low, and the poverty rate is high, reflecting the region’s economic challenges.

The school itself is one of the larger elementary settings in the Perry County district, serving a student body that is overwhelmingly white. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is consistent with the area’s economic profile. Data on special education identification and English learner populations was not available. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it operates as a neighborhood-based campus for the community.

On state assessments, the school’s performance varies by grade and subject, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand the full picture. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight are mostly in the middle to upper range, with several grades showing proficiency rates above the midpoint, and the eighth-grade rate is particularly strong. Math results are more uneven. While grades four and five show solid proficiency rates, the upper grades—six, seven, and eight—show a steady decline, with the eighth-grade rate notably lower than the others. Science results, tested in grades four and seven, lag behind reading and math; the fourth-grade rate is moderate, while the seventh-grade rate is weaker. Social studies results, tested in grades five and eight, show a mixed picture, with the fifth-grade rate stronger than the eighth-grade rate. When compared across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to other schools in Perry County, indicating that it performs on the stronger end within its own district.

Because the school serves only up to eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. Course access information and staffing data were also not available for this profile. There is no chronic absenteeism data in the materials provided. The school does not serve high school grades, so college readiness metrics like AP, dual credit, or career pathway offerings do not apply here.

The district itself, Perry County, did not have any recent parent-relevant changes surfaced in available materials. For a family considering this school, the academic picture is one of relative strength within the county, especially in literacy, but with a clear soft spot in middle school math and science that would warrant direct inquiry. The school is a longstanding regular public school in a small city recovering from a natural disaster, serving a largely homogenous student body in a high-poverty context. For a parent, the core question is how the school’s middle-grade math and science performance fits your child’s needs, and how the regional recovery context affects your own housing and employment situation.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 43% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 56% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 48% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median

Grade 654%

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

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 44% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 834%

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

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 57% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 64% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 63% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 62% · ▼ 8 pts below district

even with state median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 57% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median

Science

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 44% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 33% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 44% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 52% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

This schoolPerry 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 6Lower-income51%Higher-income64%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income84%32 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income69%Higher-income56%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income49%Higher-income71%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income62%35 pp gap