Best Public Schools in Florence, KY

Florence, Kentucky, has nine schools serving elementary through high school: five elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools, in the Boone County district. The 2025–2026 results show that elementary and middle schools average below state results, while individual schools vary widely: the elementary average gap is 3 points below the state, and the middle-school average is 5 points below. The most important takeaway is that academic results differ substantially from one Florence school to another.

Erpenbeck Elementary School is the clearest standout: it led local elementary schools in 8 of 10 comparisons and averaged 20 points above state results. SchoolDigger ranks it in the 92nd statewide percentile and gives it five stars. Ockerman Middle School also stands out, averaging 4 points above the state and earning a 64th-percentile ranking and three stars from SchoolDigger. At the lower end, Ockerman Elementary School averaged 13 points below the state and is ranked in the 17th percentile with one star; Rector A. Jones Middle School averaged 14 points below and is ranked in the 13th percentile with one star. Their grade 8 writing results illustrate the gap: 61% at Ockerman Middle versus 20% at Rector A. Jones. RISE Academy also had low reported results—20% in grade 10 math and 14% to 15% on four grade 8 tests—but most of its other listed test figures were suppressed.

Recent changes do not point to one shared trend: elementary results declined by an average of 1 point, middle-school results rose by 2 points, and Boone County High School declined by 1 point across its six reported tests. Longer-term SchoolDigger rankings rose 5 percentile points at Erpenbeck and 11 at Ockerman Middle, but fell 10 at Boone County High and 11 at Ockerman Elementary. Other measures offer context, not a simple way to predict results: in 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 36% at Erpenbeck and 57% at Ockerman Elementary, while Erpenbeck’s student–teacher ratio was 16.2 compared with 12.4 at Hillard Collins Elementary School. RISE’s 60% chronic absenteeism was also notably high, compared with 24% statewide.