Best Public Schools in Zip Code 40509

ZIP code 40509 has nine schools: four elementary schools, one middle school and four schools labeled high school, including three that serve grades 6–12. The results show a clear divide by grade: elementary schools average 61% proficiency in math and 66% in reading, compared with 43% and 50% statewide; reported grades 6–8 results are also above state averages, while tenth-grade averages are below them. Ridge Hospital Alternative High School has no test scores in the data, and some other results are suppressed. The most important finding is that strong elementary and middle-grade results do not carry through evenly to high school.

Edythe Jones Hayes Middle School leads the reported middle-grade comparison: it was ahead of other schools with results in all six grade 6–8 math and reading comparisons, with proficiency from 65% to 77%. SchoolDigger ranked Hayes 8th of 326 middle schools, at the 98th percentile. Athens-Chilesburg Elementary led seven of ten elementary grade-and-subject comparisons; SchoolDigger ranked it 28th of 684 elementary schools, at the 96th percentile. There are also notable low results: Brenda Cowan Elementary had 12% proficiency in fifth-grade writing, 23 percentage points below the state and 33–41 points below the other elementary schools. In tenth grade, Carter G. Woodson Academy led with 41% in math and 56% in reading; Martin Luther King Junior Academy had 14% and 19%, respectively.

Recent changes vary by school and subject. Across comparable elementary results, proficiency rose by an average of about 1 percentage point per comparison, but fifth-grade writing fell by an average of 12 points. Woodson’s tenth-grade math and reading results rose 17 and 16 points, respectively, from the prior year, while SchoolDigger’s ranking percentile for Martin Luther King Junior Academy fell from 18 to 4 between 2023–2024 and 2025–2026. Income measures are context, not an explanation: in 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 21% at Athens-Chilesburg and 45% at Cowan. Woodson’s student-teacher ratio was 12.7, compared with 6.3 at Martin Luther King Junior Academy, yet Woodson’s tenth-grade results were higher by 27 points in math and 37 points in reading.