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What do you wish you knew before starting at Shelby Academy?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
290
Elementary
DISTRICT 455 · STATE 421
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·JEFFERSON COUNTY·NCES 210299000780
Shelby Academy
735 Ziegler Street, Louisville, KY 40217 · (502) 485-8327 · Jefferson County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL290 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 4% of Kentucky public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Kentucky public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
9.9:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.9:1 · STATE 15.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
84%
243 students
DISTRICT 65% · STATE 63%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 32 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 40 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 45 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 52 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 43 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 78 | 27% |
This year's kindergarten class (32) is 59% smaller than its 5th grade class (78).
Student demographics
57%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 72% · STATE 47% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
KSA (K-PREP) 2024-25 . % Proficient/DistinguishedEnglish Language Arts
22.7%
KY avg 47.9%
Math
18.0%
KY avg 42.8%
What this means: On the KSA (K-PREP), Kentucky's statewide test, about 23 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 18 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Kentucky schools, those numbers are about 48 and 43.
Source: KSA (K-PREP). All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of KY schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
18.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
34.0%
based on KY schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 18% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 34% typical for Kentucky schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Shelby Academy
Shelby Academy's state test result (18.5% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shelby Academy this school | 290 | 83.8% | 18.5% |
| McNabb Elementary School Paducah | 334 | 91.0% | 26.9% |
| Portland Elementary Louisville | 304 | 90.8% | 22.0% |
| Engelhard Elementary Louisville | 265 | 86.4% | N/A |
| Cochran Elementary Louisville | 419 | 79.2% | 18.9% |
| Morgan Elementary School Paducah | 369 | 85.1% | 40.4% |
Matched among Kentucky elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Shelby Academy ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Kentucky | In Jefferson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 18.5% | #648 of 669 | #69 of 86 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 18.0% | #641 of 668 | #65 of 84 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 22.7% | #644 of 674 | #64 of 89 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 290 | #584 of 744 | #85 of 99 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 9.9:1 | #4 of 674 | #1 of 90 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 56.7% | #175 of 674 | #72 of 90 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 83.8% | #73 of 721 | #15 of 93 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -60.3% | #3 of 437 | #2 of 46 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
290
-340 (-54%) vs 2020
-47% since 1990-91, when it was 549
Student : Teacher
9.9:1
was 15.4:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 290 | 29.2 | 9.9:1 | 84% (243) |
| 2023-24 | 384 | 32.4 | 11.8:1 | 80% (308) |
| 2022-23 | 449 | 29.7 | 15.1:1 | 75% (335) |
| 2020-21 | 630 | 41 | 15.4:1 | 78% (490) |
| 2017-18 | 730 | 42.5 | 17.2:1 | 84% (615) |
| 2015-16 | 761 | 44 | 17.3:1 | 81% (613) |
| 2010-11 | 615 | 38 | 16.2:1 | 90% (553) |
| 2000-01 | 394 | N/A | N/A | 83% (327) |
| 1990-91 | 549 | 31 | 17.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Shelby Academy.
Since 2017-18: students down 60% (730 to 290); teachers down 31% (42.5 to 29.2).
About Shelby Academy
Shelby Academy is a public small elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky. It is open to students in kindergarten through 5 and enrolls 290 students. It has 31% fewer students than the average for elementary schools in Kentucky (about 421).
The 167 schools of Jefferson County, including Shelby Academy, enroll 95,124 students.
Black students are 60% of those enrolled at Shelby Academy. The rest of enrollment is 24% White, 7% Hispanic, and 7% multiracial. Census estimates put the Black share of Jefferson County's population at about 21%. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 57%.
Its staff includes 29.2 full-time-equivalent teachers, for about 9.9 students per teacher. The average for elementary schools in Kentucky, 15.4:1, is higher. Shelby Academy has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 84%. The average for public schools in Jefferson County is 61%.
On the allk12 Grade, Shelby Academy lands at F, ahead of 4% of Kentucky public elementary schools.
BeatsExpectations places Shelby Academy in the bottom 10% of Kentucky schools. The measure fits a line through proficiency and free or reduced-price lunch share for each state, and this school sits 15.5 points below it (18.5% actual, 34.0% predicted).
In Jefferson County, home to about 783,022 people, median household income comes to about $69,866, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 37%, and roughly 11% of residents are in poverty. There are 175 public schools in the county, enrolling about 95,579, Shelby Academy among them.
Shelby Academy's nearest public school is duPont Manual High (about 0.7 miles). In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Shelby Academy. Shelby Academy places 4th of 4 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
The NCES locale for Shelby Academy is City: Large, which covers schools inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, reported enrollment went from 630 to 290. Such a large difference may reflect a change in the grades served. From 2020-21 to 2024-25, the ratio dropped from 15.4:1 to 9.9:1.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Jefferson County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
783,022
Census ACS
Median income
$69,866
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
37%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
175
95,579 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Jefferson County
- Ballard HighHigh · 2,148 students
- duPont Manual HighHigh · 1,899 students
- Marion C. Moore SchoolHigh · 1,892 students
- Eastern HighHigh · 1,790 students
- Pleasure Ridge Park HighHigh · 1,777 students
- Louisville Male HighHigh · 1,763 students
Other schools in Louisville
- Ballard HighHigh · 2,148 students
- duPont Manual HighHigh · 1,899 students
- Marion C. Moore SchoolHigh · 1,892 students
- Pleasure Ridge Park HighHigh · 1,777 students
- Louisville Male HighHigh · 1,763 students
- Southern HighHigh · 1,725 students
Nearby schools
- duPont Manual High0.7 mi · 1,899
- Noe Middle0.7 mi · 1,155
- U of L PACT Program0.8 mi · 19
- Cochran Elementary1.1 mi · 419
- Engelhard Elementary1.2 mi · 265
- Pathfinder School of Innovation1.2 mi · 918
Frequently asked questions
About Shelby AcademyHow large is Shelby Academy?
Shelby Academy enrolls approximately 290 students in grades KG-05.
Is Shelby Academy an elementary, middle, or high school?
Shelby Academy is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Shelby Academy?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Shelby Academy is approximately 9.9:1 (29 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Shelby Academy?
Shelby Academy reports a student body of 24% White, 7% Hispanic, 60% Black, 0% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is Shelby Academy in?
Shelby Academy is part of Jefferson County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.