East Pennyroyal News

There were 250 ninth grade students enrolled in Russell County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 9.2% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Russell County High School is the only school in the county that welcomed ninth grade students.

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

Statewide, Russell County ranked 63rd in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 63rd 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
Russell County High School	250	28.3%	883