Summary:
Butler, Kentucky, has one middle school, Phillip Sharp Middle School, serving grades 6–8 with 420 students in the Pendleton County district. Because it is the only school in the list, there is no school-to-school comparison. The clearest concern is mathematics: in 2025–2026, the school’s average proficiency across grades 6–8 was 25%, compared with 40% statewide, a 15-point shortfall, and it scored below the state in all three grades.
The school’s strongest relative result was 8th-grade writing, where 68% were proficient, 20 points above Kentucky’s 48%; editing and mechanics was also above the state, at 50% versus 42%. Results were weaker in other subjects: reading averaged 42% across grades 6–8, 6 points below the state’s 48%; science was 11 points below (17% versus 28%), and social studies was 9 points below (30% versus 39%). Within reading, grade 7 stands out as a particular concern: 38% proficiency was 12 points below the state, while grade 6 was 3 points below and grade 8 was 4 points below.
Overall results moved closer to the state between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, but gains were concentrated in writing and editing/mechanics. Across ten matching subject-and-grade results, the school average rose from 32% to 37%, while the state average shifted from 43% to 42%; the average gap narrowed from 12 points to 6. Writing rose 36 points and editing/mechanics rose 15, but grade 7 reading fell 6 points and mathematics remained below the state in every grade. SchoolDigger’s statewide ranking improved from 270 of 320 schools, in the 16th percentile with 1 star, in 2024–2025 to 223 of 326, in the 32nd percentile with 2 stars, in 2025–2026. For context, the student–teacher ratio was 16.1 in 2024–2025, and 56% were free/reduced lunch eligible that year.
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