SE Kentucky News

There were nine African American students enrolled in Jackson County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 12.5% increase from the eight African American students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Jackson County welcomed a total of 2,324 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 0.4% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the eight schools in Jackson County, Sand Gap Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of three students, making up 1.1% 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
Jackson County High School	0.3%	599
Jackson County Middle School	0.4%	447
Barnabus Home Middle School	16.7%	6
McKee Elementary School	0.2%	428
Sand Gap Elementary School	1.1%	284