Raceland-worthington Middle School, Raceland KY

Original Research by School Decision on Raceland-worthington Middle School

Raceland-Worthington Middle School serves students from third through eighth grade in the small Ohio River valley city of Raceland, Kentucky. It is part of the Raceland-Worthington Independent School District, a three-school system that also includes an elementary school for kindergarten through third grade and a high school. The district’s three buildings are all within Raceland’s compact residential fabric, and the city itself is a car-dependent place with a high homeownership rate, a historic rail car shop that still employs local workers, and a main street on U.S. Route 23 that links it to Ashland a short drive southeast.

The school enrolls roughly enough students to fill a single grade per hallway, and the student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and even smaller numbers of Black and multiracial students. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, placing the school in a middle-income context for the region. No data was available on the share of students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent should ask the school directly about those support services.

Academically, the picture is mixed and varies by grade and subject. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates improve notably as students move through the grades. The lower elementary grades show proficiency at a modest share, but by sixth grade a substantial majority of students meet the state’s bar, and seventh grade also posts a strong result. Math follows a less consistent pattern: third and fourth grade proficiency rates sit at moderate levels, fifth grade dips, sixth grade rebounds to a solid level, and seventh grade drops again. A family with a child in the upper grades will see stronger English outcomes than math ones. Science proficiency across the tested grades (fourth and seventh) is quite low, and the share of students reaching proficiency in social studies in fifth grade is also modest. Taken as a whole across all subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint among the three districts in Greenup County, meaning it performs somewhat better than the county median but not at the top.

A parent looking at these results should understand that the lower elementary grades have more ground to cover, particularly in math and science, while the middle grades show genuine strength in reading. Given that the school does not serve high school grades, there is no four-year graduation rate to report, and no chronic absenteeism data was available in the materials reviewed. The school’s type is a regular public school; it is not a charter or magnet, and Title I status was not listed, so families should confirm whether the school receives federal poverty-based funding directly.

The housing market in Raceland offers an entry point well below state and national medians, with modest home values and a slight year-over-year dip. The community is stable, with a small population decline over the past decade and a minor annexation in the early 2020s. Employment grew noticeably in recent years, though that may reflect data adjustments more than a building boom. For a family considering the area, the school fits as a neighborhood middle school in a tight-knit, blue-collar small town where the same children likely move together from the elementary campus through to the high school. The academic profile means that a child who is strong in reading will find a good fit in the upper grades, while families whose children need extra support in math or science will want to investigate what interventions the school offers, since the proficiency numbers in those areas are softer and the available data does not name specific programs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 34% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 52% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 35% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 51%

even with state median

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 66% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 52% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Science

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 23% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 35% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolRaceland-Worthington Independent, 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-income45%Higher-income43%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income41%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income58%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income54%Higher-income58%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income32%Higher-income33%0 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income45%Higher-income51%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income45%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income49%Higher-income58%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income42%9 pp gap