Best Public Schools in Jackson, KY

Jackson has six schools—two elementary schools, three high schools and one alternative school—with 1,858 students overall; enrollment ranges from 18 at Breathitt Learning Academy to 669 at Breathitt County High School, and the median school has 371 students. The clearest area-wide concern in the reported 2025–2026 results is mathematics: school results averaged 11 points below state proficiency, while social studies averaged 7 points below. Results vary considerably by grade and subject, so no single schoolwide result captures what a family may want to know about a particular class.

Jackson City School stands out in specific subjects: its 10th-grade reading proficiency was 64%, versus 37% at Breathitt County High and 49% statewide; in 8th-grade Editing and Mechanics, it scored 56%, compared with 30% at Breathitt County High and 42% statewide. But Jackson City’s 8th-grade math was just 8%, below Breathitt County High’s 27% and the state’s 39%. Breathitt County High had stronger high-school writing and social studies results: 11th-grade writing was 56%, 9 points above the state, and social studies was 40%, versus 37% statewide. At the elementary level, Sebastian Elementary School and Breathitt Elementary tied at 38% in 4th-grade reading; Breathitt County High’s reported chronic absenteeism, 33%, was the highest in the list.

Results moved modestly toward the state across matched test results: school scores rose by an average of 2 points, and the school–state gap narrowed by about 3 points, though changes differed sharply by grade and subject. Jackson City’s 10th-grade reading rose 35 points, while its 8th-grade math fell 35 points; Sebastian’s 4th-grade science improved 14 points, from 21% to 35%. SchoolDigger’s percentile for Breathitt County High rose from the 27th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 47th in 2025–2026; Sebastian’s moved from the 19th to the 20th percentile. As context, in 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligible rates ranged from 28% at Breathitt Regional School to 79% at Sebastian, while student-teacher ratios ranged from 9 at Breathitt Learning Academy to 18 at Breathitt Regional. KSA scores for Breathitt Regional and Breathitt Learning Academy are unavailable because the state suppressed their results.