The school is in a rural, impoverished area of Kentucky; 85% of the school population 85% on free or reduced-price lunch and 34% of parents are illiterate or did not complete school.

“A large part of our school’s reading success is attributed to Reading Recovery and Comprehensive Intervention Model (CIM) groups that help struggling readers in the primary grades catch up to where they need to be before progressing to the next grade level,” said Tracy Hagan, Reading Recovery teacher/CIM interventionist/and K-1 literacy block coordinator at Tompkinsville. “Early interventions are the keys to continued reading success in the intermediate grades.”