Summary:
Prestonsburg, Kentucky, has five listed schools: two elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools; three campuses report test results, while the two Home Instruction schools do not. In 2025–26, Prestonsburg Elementary School, James D. Adams Middle School and Prestonsburg High School all had chronic absenteeism well above the state rate: 40%, 42% and 37%, compared with 24% statewide. The clearest shared concern is that absenteeism is high at all three schools.
Prestonsburg High School stands out as closest to its grade-specific state benchmarks overall: its average was 39.0%, compared with 39.3% for the state, a 0.3-point shortfall. That near-average overall result conceals sharp contrasts: 11th-grade writing was 65%, 18 points above the state, while 10th-grade math was 18 points below. Prestonsburg Elementary School had the largest average shortfall, scoring 31% against a 44% state average, a 13-point gap. James D. Adams Middle School fell between them, at 32% versus 42%, a 10-point gap; seventh-grade math was its largest subject-grade weakness, 17 points below the state. These averages summarize each school’s own tested grades, not same-grade comparisons between campuses.
Recent trends were mixed: Prestonsburg High School’s paired test average rose 2 points and its state gap narrowed 2 points; James D. Adams improved by about 1 point and narrowed its gap by 2 points. Prestonsburg Elementary fell 2 points, while its gap widened 3 points. SchoolDigger ranking percentiles also shifted from 12 to 24 to 18 for the elementary school, 9 to 17 to 18 for the middle school, and 50 to 40 to 51 for the high school from 2023–24 through 2025–26. As context, 2024–25 free/reduced lunch eligible measures were 78%, 70% and 65%, respectively; student–teacher ratios were 15.1:1, 15.5:1 and 17.1:1. These figures describe school context, not the cause of outcomes.
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