East Pennyroyal News

There were 442 Hispanic or Latino students enrolled in Russell County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 8.6% increase from the 407 Hispanic or Latino students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Russell County welcomed a total of 3,206 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Hispanic or Latino students comprised 13.8% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the five schools in Russell County, Russell Springs Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of Hispanic or Latino students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 125 students, making up 18.6% 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 Hispanic or Latino Students Enrolment	Total Enrollment
Jamestown Elementary School	10.5%	516
Russell Springs Elementary School	18.6%	671
Russell County High School	12.3%	883
Salem Elementary School	10.5%	428
Russell County Middle School	15.4%	708