Summary:
Cave City School District is served by a single elementary school, Cave City Elementary School, which educates 605 students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade in a high-poverty area where over 75% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Cave City Elementary School presents a mixed picture of performance. On one hand, the school outperforms the state average in English Language Arts (45.4% vs. 39.4%), Reading (45.4% vs. 40.4%), and Science (48.3% vs. 44.0%) for the 2025-2026 school year, with 3rd grade being a particular strength—achieving proficiency rates well above state averages in all core subjects. However, the school is on a concerning downward trend, dropping from the 73rd percentile (4 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 59th percentile (3 stars) in 2025-2026. This decline is driven by a significant "4th grade slump," where 4th graders scored far below state averages in English Language Arts (33.6% vs. 41.4%), Reading (32.6% vs. 40.9%), and especially Mathematics (31.5% vs. 47.0%). Mathematics is a growing weakness overall, with the school's 42.5% proficiency rate falling below the state average of 44.1%.
Despite serving a high-poverty population, the school achieves above-average results in literacy and science, highlighting effective instruction in those areas. However, the district's overall 5-star ranking (26th out of 251 districts) suggests that the elementary school's declining performance is being offset by stronger middle or high school results. With a student-teacher ratio of 15.2:1 and spending of $12,797 per student, the key question for parents is whether resources are being effectively directed to address the 4th-grade slump and the math deficit, as the school's overall trajectory is one of decline even as it maintains strengths in specific subjects and grade levels.
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