Summary:
Columbia, Kentucky, has five schools in the Adair County district: two elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools, spanning the early grades through high school. Available KSA results cover grades 3–11. The clearest academic concern is fifth-grade writing at Adair County Elementary School: 10% of students were proficient, 25 percentage points below the state.
Adair County Middle School has the strongest standout result: sixth-grade math proficiency was 57%, compared with 42% statewide, a 15-point lead; sixth-grade reading was 6 points above the state. Adair County Elementary School also did well in fourth-grade science and reading, leading the state by 9 and 8 points, respectively, but its fifth-grade writing result was far behind. At Adair County High School, 11th-grade writing was 3 points above the state, while math and several other subjects were below. Graduation was a strength at 98%, versus 94% statewide, but chronic absenteeism was 34%, 11 points above the state rate.
Across 25 comparable subject-and-grade results, the average school–state gap improved from about 1 point below the state in 2024–25 to approximately level in 2025–26, though progress differed by school. SchoolDigger statewide ranking percentiles rose from 37 to 53 at the Middle School and from 41 to 53 at the Elementary School; the High School moved from 48 to 47, including a four-point decline in the latest year. SchoolDigger gives the district 3 stars and ranks it 78th of 158. The 2024–25 free/reduced lunch eligible shares ranged from 5% at Adair Learning Academy to 71% at the Elementary School; reported student-teacher ratios ranged from 8.3 at the Academy to 14.7 at the High School. The Adair County Primary Center has no listed test results, and the Academy’s school-level test values are suppressed.
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