NCES CCD 2024-25 6 schools KY

Best-Resourced Schools in Independence, KY

Compiled from official source data by .

6 public K-12 schools in Independence from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
6
Schools
5,962
Students
47.5/100
Avg Resource Index
17.8:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Independence has more public-school enrollment than 63% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Independence's 6 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

4 of Independence's 6 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

One district, but meaningful resource variation

Independence's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 79th percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 25-point gap between White's Tower Elementary School and Simon Kenton High School measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.

City enrollment
Top 37%
School count
Top 79%
Resource Index average
79th percentile
Teacher staffing
27th percentile

Simon Kenton High School accounts for 31.8% of all Independence public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Independence-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Independence school enrollment varies 2.9× across entities

Independence school enrollment ranges from 645 students (lowest) to 1,893 students (highest), a spread of 1,248 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Independence operates one school district — a single-district system

Independence's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Independence student-teacher ratio is 17.8:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Independence is typically wider than the Independence-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. White's Tower Elementary School 61
2. Summit View Academy 47
3. Twenhofel Middle School 47
4. Kenton Elementary School 47
5. Beechgrove Elementary School 47
6. Simon Kenton High School 36

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Independence

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Beechgrove Elementary School 39.3/100
  2. 2 Summit View Academy 27.4/100
  3. 3 Kenton Elementary School 24.4/100
  4. 4 White's Tower Elementary School 23.6/100
  5. 5 Twenhofel Middle School 23.5/100

What do families ask about schools in Independence?

Which Independence school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

White's Tower Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Independence schools in this federal-data comparison at 61/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Independence, KY? ▼

Independence has 6 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,962 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 17.8:1.

Other Cities in Kentucky

Louisville
158 schools
Lexington
74 schools
Bowling Green
36 schools
Owensboro
31 schools
Ashland
18 schools
Elizabethtown
17 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Kentucky →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.