East Pennyroyal News

There were 313 Hispanic or Latino students enrolled in Marion County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 8.7% increase from the 288 Hispanic or Latino students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Marion County welcomed a total of 3,534 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Hispanic or Latino students comprised 8.9% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the eight schools in Marion County, two schools recorded the highest enrollment of Hispanic or Latino students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 63 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.

School name	% of Hispanic or Latino Students Enrolment	Total Enrollment
Calvary Elementary School	4%	250
Hugh C. Spalding Academy	9.1%	187
Glasscock Elementary School	11.6%	508
Marion County Knight Academy	10.9%	578
Marion County Middle School	8.7%	460
West Marion Elementary School	2.8%	431
Lebanon Elementary School	12.3%	399
Marion County High School	8.7%	721