SE Kentucky News

There were 55 African American students enrolled in Harlan County School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 3.5% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Harlan County School District welcomed 3,764 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 1.5% of the student body to be the third least represented ethnicity in the district.

Harlan County School District roughly covers nine schools within Harlan County and has a main office in Harlan.

Among the nine schools in Harlan County School District, Cumberland Elementary School and Harlan County High School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 18 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 African American Students	African American %
2022-23	3,764	55	1.5%
2021-22	3,827	57	1.5%
2020-21	3,957	68	1.7%
2019-20	4,096	69	1.7%