Paden

Two schools serve Paden: Paden Elementary School (pre-K–8, 143 students) and Paden High School (grades 9–12, 64 students). In 2025–2026, both schools reported results in ELA I, mathematics and science; only the high school reported U.S. History. The clearest academic bright spot is high-school ELA I, while mathematics is a shared weakness.

Paden High School led in ELA I, with 45% proficient in 2025–2026 compared with 14% at Paden Elementary School, a 31-point gap; the high school was also 19 points above the state’s 26%. In the more comparable 11th-grade results, the high school scored 45%, 9 points above the state. Mathematics was the weakest shared subject: both schools scored 6%, 19 points below the state. Elementary led in science, 24% to 16%, though both were below the state’s 30%. High school U.S. History was 35%, 6 points below the state. The schools’ different grade spans mean their All Grades results are not same-grade comparisons.

Recent results show that the high school’s strong ELA result has not carried across subjects: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, its All Grades scores fell 3 points in ELA I, 7 in math, 4 in science and 3 in U.S. History. The two-school ELA average remained about 30%, while the math average fell from 10% to 6%. SchoolDigger’s reported percentile for the high school declined from 67 in 2023–2024 to 46 in 2025–2026, even as its 2024–2025 graduation rate was 92%, compared with 78% statewide. Attendance was better than the state rate at both schools: chronic absenteeism was 3% at the high school and 12% at the elementary school, versus 16% statewide. For 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 64% of high-school enrollment and 79% of elementary enrollment; student-teacher ratios were 13.8 and 16.1, respectively. These are useful context, not explanations for achievement differences.