Jackson Purchase News

There were 224 African American students enrolled in Calloway County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 19.8% increase from the 187 African American students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Calloway County welcomed a total of 5,480 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 4.1% of the student body to be the third least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 10 schools in Calloway County, Murray Middle School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 47 students, making up 6.9% 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 African American Students Enrolment	Total Enrollment
Calloway County High School	1.9%	918
East Calloway Elementary School	0.6%	348
North Calloway Elementary School	3.9%	645
Southwest Calloway Elementary School	1.1%	475
Calloway County Middle School	1.9%	735
Calloway County Preschool Center	5%	220
Calloway County Day Treatment	12.5%	32
Calloway County Alternative Program	3%	132
Murray Elementary School	5.8%	571
Murray Middle School	6.9%	684
Murray High School	7.9%	581
Murray Preschool Head Start	11.5%	139