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Paducah, Kentucky - 7 schools
An equity score of 61/100 ranks Paducah Independent #58 of 171 districts in Kentucky (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,678 per pupil, Paducah Independent ranks #52 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending (Kentucky districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,119
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$13,678
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Paducah Independent operates 7 public schools serving 3,119 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kentucky. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 2 combined, 1 high, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Mccracken County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,678 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kentucky compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 29.0% local, 44.9% state, and 26.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 61/100, ranked #58 of 171 in Kentucky against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (18 AP courses district-wide), a 286.4:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 32.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 45.3% African American, 32.5% White, 7.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Morgan Elementary School, with a diversity index of 68.1/100.
Its largest campus is Paducah Tilghman High School, enrolling 860 students (28% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Choices Educational Center, at 42 students, a 20x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Paducah Tilghman High School accounts for 27.6% of all Paducah Independent student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Paducah Independent-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Paducah Independent school enrollment varies 20× across entities
Paducah Independent school enrollment ranges from 42 students (lowest) to 860 students (highest), a spread of 818 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Paducah Independent has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 76.1% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Paducah Independent student-counselor ratio is 286:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Variation between sub-units within Paducah Independent is typically wider than the Paducah Independent-aggregate figure suggests.
Paducah Independent chronic absenteeism rate is 32.1% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.