Summary:
Stanford, Kentucky, has three Stanford Elementary, Lincoln County Middle, and Lincoln County High public schools, spanning pre-K through grade 12 and enrolling 2,155 students altogether. The clearest area-wide concern is math: across the schools, proficiency averaged 14 percentage points below matching state results, and 23 of 26 reported grade-and-subject results were below the state.
Stanford Elementary had the strongest average state-relative profile, about 5 points below the state across six subjects, compared with 9 points below for Lincoln County High and 10 below for Lincoln County Middle. That elementary average hides a sharp contrast: fifth-grade reading and writing each beat the state by 7 points, while its math average was 19 points below. Middle school’s clearest weakness was math, with seventh- and eighth-grade results 16 and 15 points below the state; its stronger results included sixth-grade reading, 4 points below, and eighth-grade social studies, 3 points below. High school was below the state in all six subjects, with its largest gaps in reading (14 points) and writing (11). Because the schools serve different grade spans, their raw test scores are not direct comparisons.
Results weakened overall from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: school results fell an average of 4 points per matched result, and the average gap to the state widened by 3 points. The high school had the largest average decline, 6 points per result; middle and elementary each declined about 3. SchoolDigger’s reported percentile also fell at the high school, from 43 to 25, while elementary rose from 20 to 31 and middle moved from 19 to 18. Other context differs across schools: student-teacher ratios were 11.6 at elementary, 16.2 at middle, and 15.2 at high school; 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 75%, 76%, and 67%, respectively. High school graduation was 98%, but chronic absenteeism was also high at 34%, versus 24% statewide.
Thank you for your feedback!