Newport Independent

Newport Independent serves 1,290 students in Newport, Kentucky, across four schools spanning prekindergarten through grade 12: Newport Primary School (PK–2), Newport Intermediate School (grades 3–6), Newport High School (grades 7–12), and Newport Regional School (grades 6–12). Across the 22 current reportable test results, school proficiency averages 24%, compared with 44% for the state, a 20-point gap. The most important takeaway is that even where school results lead the district, they remain below state results.

Newport High School is the clearest relative bright spot: its scores are above district results in all 12 reportable subject-and-grade comparisons, by 1–8 points, though still below the state in every comparison. Newport Intermediate School generally matches or slightly exceeds district results, but grade 5 is a particular concern: math is 10% versus 43% statewide, reading 15% versus 51%, and writing 6% versus 35%. The closest result to the state is High’s grade 8 math, at 33% versus 39%. Because the schools’ reported results do not overlap by grade and subject, they cannot be fairly ranked directly; Primary has no supplied scores, and Regional’s school-level scores are suppressed.

Recent results show mixed movement rather than steady improvement: across 23 comparable results, school scores fell an average of 2 points per result, while the state average changed by 0 points, widening the average gap by about 2 points. High had six increases and six decreases; Intermediate had four increases and seven decreases. SchoolDigger’s statewide rankings also remain low: High moved from the 27th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 14th in 2025–2026, while Intermediate went from the 7th to the 4th percentile. For context, 2024–2025 student-teacher ratios ranged from 8.6 at Regional to 11.1 at Primary. All four schools reported free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–2025, ranging from 83% at High to 96% at Regional; these figures describe the schools’ context, not the cause of their results.