SE Kentucky News

There were seven Asian students enrolled in Middlesboro Independent School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 12.5% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Middlesboro Independent School District welcomed 1,245 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Asian students comprised 0.6% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the district.

Middlesboro Independent School District roughly covers five schools within Bell County and has a main office in Middlesboro.

Among the five schools in Middlesboro Independent School District, Middlesboro High School recorded the highest enrollment of Asian students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of six students.

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.

Data also shows that between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 260% in the number of available teaching posts in Kentucky schools. This often leads to larger class sizes, combining programs, and retaining staff despite potential negative impacts on teacher working conditions.

Year	Total District Enrollment	Total Asian Students	Asian %
2022-23	1,245	7	0.6%
2021-22	1,211	8	0.7%
2020-21	1,176	9	0.8%
2019-20	1,281	9	0.7%