Summary:
Zip code 40823 has one listed school, Cumberland Elementary School, serving pre-K through grade 8 with 428 students. With no other listed schools for comparison, the most useful picture comes from comparing its grade-by-grade results with the same grades across Kentucky. In 2025–26, the school was above state proficiency in 13 of 19 reported grade-and-subject results, but performance varied sharply by grade and subject.
The clearest strengths were in eighth grade: results exceeded the state by 25 percentage points in social studies, 24 points in reading and editing and mechanics, and 18 points in math. The clearest weakness was fifth-grade writing, where 9% were proficient compared with 35% statewide—a 26-point gap; fifth-grade reading was also 10 points below the state. Across reported grades, average results were above state levels in reading, math, science, social studies, and editing and mechanics, but writing averaged 17 points below. As the only school listed, Cumberland is technically both the highest- and lowest-ranked school in this area, but that does not show how it compares with other nearby schools.
Results improved modestly overall from 2024–25 to 2025–26, with an average increase of about 2 percentage points across the 19 comparable results. Changes differed by subject: social studies rose 9 points on average, while writing fell 5 points; fifth-grade writing dropped 14 points, even as eighth-grade social studies rose 16. SchoolDigger ranked Cumberland 381st of 684 schools, in the 44th percentile, with 2 stars in 2025–26—a recovery from 448th and the 35th percentile the prior year, but below its 2023–24 position in the 49th percentile. Chronic absenteeism was 50% in 2025–26, compared with 24% statewide and 46% in Harlan County. Context measures include a student–teacher ratio of 13.2 and 83% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–25; these describe the school but do not explain its results.
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