Owsley County

Owsley County has two listed schools serving 727 students: Owsley County Elementary School serves prekindergarten through grade 5, and Owsley County High School serves grades 6–12. The clearest concern is elementary math: proficiency was 7% in grade 4 and 6% in grade 5, compared with 43% statewide in both grades—a gap of 36 and 37 percentage points.

Owsley County High School stands out for several results above the state, while Owsley County Elementary School has the sharper shortfalls. In 2025–2026, high school 11th-grade editing and mechanics was 50% proficient versus 40% statewide, and writing was 53% versus 47%; in contrast, 11th-grade social studies was 29% versus 37%. SchoolDigger ranked the high school at the 56th percentile in Kentucky (115th of 262, 3 stars), compared with the elementary school at the 6th percentile (646th of 684, 0 stars). The schools serve different grade spans, so these rankings and results are not direct same-grade comparisons.

Recent trends also favor the high school overall, though neither school improved in every area. Across the matched results, high school proficiency rose an average of 6 points from the prior year, and its average gap against the state improved by 7 points; the elementary school’s average proficiency change was effectively zero. The high school’s chronic absenteeism remains a concern at 44%, compared with 24% statewide; the elementary school’s rate was 37%. In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 97% of high school enrollment and 70% of elementary enrollment. That year, student-teacher ratios were 15.2 at the high school and 11.2 at the elementary school; these figures describe the schools’ context, not the cause of their results.