East Pennyroyal News

There were 245 ninth grade students enrolled in Rockcastle County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 9.4% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Rockcastle County High School welcomed most of the ninth grade students in the county, registering 237 students.

Within Rockcastle County schools, the highest student population was found in first grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Rockcastle County ranked 65th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 65th 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
Rockcastle County High School	237	27.3%	868
Rockcastle Academy for Academic Achievement	8	11.9%	67