West Pennyroyal News

There were 403 African American students enrolled in Barren County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 5.4% decrease from the 426 African American students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Barren County welcomed a total of 9,223 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 4.4% of the student body to be the third least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 18 schools in Barren County, Highland Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 57 students, making up 7% of the school's total student body.

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 name	% of African American Students Enrolment	Total Enrollment
Austin Tracy Elementary School	1.9%	366
College Street Campus	4.7%	86
BAVEL	3.3%	275
North Jackson Elementary School	1.2%	583
Barren County High School	1%	1,459
Eastern Elementary School	2.4%	378
Barren County Middle School	2%	698
Hiseville Elementary School	1.2%	322
Park City Elementary School	2.8%	436
Red Cross Elementary School	3.1%	753
Temple Hill Elementary School	0.7%	298
Caverna Elementary School	8.2%	354
Caverna Middle School	9.5%	147
Caverna High School	15%	233
Success Academy	4.9%	142
Highland Elementary School	7%	816
Happy Valley Learning Center	18.5%	54
Glasgow High School	8.3%	639
Glasgow Middle School	8.3%	589
South Green Elementary School	7.2%	595