East Pennyroyal News

There were 312 ninth grade students enrolled in Marion County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 3.3% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Marion County Knight Academy welcomed most of the ninth grade students in the county, registering 289 students.

Within Marion County schools, the highest student population was found in 10th grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Marion County ranked 53rd in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 53rd 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 9th Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Marion County Knight Academy	289	50%	578
Hugh C. Spalding Academy	21	11.2%	187
Marion County High School	2	0.3%	721