SW Bluegrass News

There were 241 Hispanic or Latino students enrolled in Mercer County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 14.2% increase from the 211 Hispanic or Latino students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Mercer County welcomed a total of 3,497 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Hispanic or Latino students comprised 6.9% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the seven schools in Mercer County, Mercer County Senior High School recorded the highest enrollment of Hispanic or Latino students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 61 students, making up 8% 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
Burgin Independent School	2.8%	542
Mercer County Senior High School	8%	762
Mercer County Day Treatment	18.8%	32
Kenneth D. King Middle School	7.6%	657
Mercer Central	14.3%	70
Mercer County Intermediate School	6.9%	625
Mercer County Elementary School	6.9%	809