SE Kentucky News

There were 265 seventh grade students enrolled in Letcher County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 10.2% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Whitesburg Middle School welcomed most of the seventh grade students in the county, registering 64 students.

Within Letcher County schools, the highest student population was found in eighth grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Letcher County ranked 54th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 54th the year before.

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	# of 7th Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Whitesburg Middle School	64	36.2%	177
Letcher Elementary & Middle School	56	14.4%	390
Fleming Neon Middle School	43	24.2%	178
Jenkins Independent School	41	7.5%	547
Cowan Elementary School	34	11.9%	286
Arlie Boggs Elementary School	23	17.3%	133
Letcher County Alternative Education Center	4	12.9%	31