West Pennyroyal News

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

Of the 3,394 students attending Simpson County schools, 77.1% were white. African American students were the second most represented ethnicity, making up 11%.

In the previous school year, white students were also the most common group in Simpson County schools, representing 76.7% of the student body.

Franklin Elementary School, Franklin-Simpson Middle School, and Franklin-Simpson 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 1% 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
Franklin-Simpson High School	White	78.9%	950
Simpson Elementary School	White	77.6%	711
Franklin-Simpson Middle School	White	76.5%	693
Lincoln Elementary School	White	76.5%	490
Franklin Elementary School	White	77.5%	395
Franklin-Simpson High School West Campus	White	67.7%	155