The top reported proficiency rate is 90% in Science. The lowest is 80% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Larry Miller Intermediate Elementary School
Larry Miller Intermediate Elementary School, serving kindergarten through fifth grade in New Concord, sits in a small, walkable college village anchored by Muskingum University. The school's test results are strong. In the most recent state assessment, proficiency across grades three through five reached near or above four-fifths in math and English language arts, with science proficiency notably higher. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among the county's school entities, a meaningful standing for a district-wide elementary school.
The enrollment is compact, with the bulk of students in third through fifth grade. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility touches a modest share of the population. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with very small numbers of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds; data on special education enrollment and English learners was not available. New Concord itself is a residential village with strong white-collar workforce representation and a historic, pre-World War II downtown along the old National Road (U.S. 40). The university dominates local civic life and employment, though the region draws workers to larger employers in healthcare, banking, manufacturing, and utilities across the broader Zanesville area.
The school's kindergarten and first-grade cohorts are tiny; grades three through five carry the enrollment. This structure suggests the school either draws students from a small attendance zone or serves as a building within a larger district organization. The district, East Muskingum Local, has made a deliberate shift toward Science of Reading methodology in its K-3 literacy instruction, a evidence-based approach that the district trained its teachers in ahead of state mandate. That change shapes how every early-grade reader in the building learns phonics and decoding. In November 2023, the district passed a new operating levy on a razor-thin vote margin, a property-tax increase that reflects ongoing fiscal constraints in rural Ohio education.
Housing in the area is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, and the community is stable rather than growing. A parent considering this school would find a small-town setting, strong tested performance, a public school in good academic standing against its county peers, and a literacy program grounded in current reading science. The school's student population and setting are rural and small; whether that matches a family's preference for school environment is a separate question from its academic track record.
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