Schools in Zip Code 42647

Zip code 42647 has two schools serving grades 6–12: McCreary County Middle School (grades 6–8, enrollment 633) and McCreary Central High School (grades 9–12, enrollment 711). Both report Kentucky Assessment results for 2025–2026, and the clearest area-wide finding is that all 16 reported results were below their state comparisons: the schools averaged 30% across those tests, compared with 41% for the state, an 11-point gap.

McCreary Central High School stands out as closer to the state overall, averaging 33% on its reported tests versus the state’s 39%, a 6-point average gap. Its grade 11 Science and Writing results were each just 2 points below the state. McCreary County Middle School averaged 29% versus the state’s 42%, a 14-point gap; its grade 6 Reading result was the weakest state comparison, at 34% versus 54%, a 20-point gap. The schools test different grades, so these averages are broad snapshots rather than a direct, like-for-like ranking.

Recent results and SchoolDigger rankings show different patterns at the two schools. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, the high school’s average fell from 35% to 33%, while the middle school’s moved from 30% to 29%; overall, the schools’ average gap from the state widened from 10 to 11 points. Some results improved, including middle-school grade 8 Writing, up 12 points to 31%, while high-school Social Studies fell 6 points to 25%. SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking dropped from 31 to 12 for the middle school, compared with 37 to 31 for the high school. Both schools had a 15.8 student-teacher ratio in 2024–2025; that year, free/reduced lunch eligible students were 80% at the middle school and 78% at the high school. The high school’s 2025–2026 graduation rate was 97%, above the state’s 94%, alongside chronic absenteeism of 40% versus 24% statewide; the middle school’s chronic absenteeism was 34%.