SE Kentucky News

There were 338 eighth grade students enrolled in Bell County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 14.2% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Middlesboro Middle School welcomed most of the eighth grade students in the county, registering 96 students.

Within Bell County schools, the highest student population was found in ninth grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in fifth grade.

Statewide, Bell County ranked 39th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 39th 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 8th Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Middlesboro Middle School	96	30.3%	317
Yellow Creek School Center	62	9.7%	636
Bell Central School Center	48	9%	536
Page School Center	38	11.9%	320
Pineville Independent School	38	5.9%	641
Lone Jack School Center	22	9.6%	229
Right Fork School Center	15	8.8%	170
Frakes School Center	12	10.2%	118
Bell County High School	3	0.4%	740
Middlesboro Alternative School	3	6.8%	44
Middlesboro Group Home School	1	3.3%	30