West Pennyroyal News

The majority of students in Barren County schools were white in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Of the 9,634 students attending Barren County schools, 81.8% were white. Hispanic or Latino students were the second most represented ethnicity, making up 6.8%.

In the previous school year, white students were also the most common group in Barren County schools, representing 79.7% of the student body.

Caverna High School had the most diverse student body in the county, which included African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, multiracial, and white.

In the 2022-23 school year, the total number of students enrolled in schools in the county increased by 2.7% compared to the previous year.

Despite escaping some of the pandemic's educational disruptions, Kentucky's achievement gaps have remained an issue since 2019. In the eighth-grade reading assessments, for example, Hispanic students scored eight points lower than their white peers, and the gap reached 15 points in math. Black students fared even worse, falling more than 20 points behind and facing a failure rate nearly double that of their white counterparts.

School	Most Prevalent	Percent of Total Student Body	Total Enrollment
Barren County High School	White	92%	1,419
Highland Elementary School	White	67.5%	824
Barren County Middle School	White	91.3%	815
Red Cross Elementary School	White	88%	773
South Green Elementary School	White	62.1%	660
North Jackson Elementary School	White	90.6%	598
Park City Elementary School	White	84.2%	494
Eastern Elementary School	White	93.5%	445
Caverna Elementary School	White	73.9%	441
Temple Hill Elementary School	White	86.1%	337
BAVEL	White	88.1%	319
Austin Tracy Elementary School	White	93.7%	301
Hiseville Elementary School	White	92%	299
Caverna High School	White	192.8%	236
Caverna Middle School	White	76.6%	167
College Street Campus	White	89.6%	144
Success Academy	White	65.2%	115
Happy Valley Learning Center	White	59.6%	47