Jackson Purchase News

There were 99 ninth grade students enrolled in Ballard County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 45.6% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Ballard Memorial High School is the only school in the county that welcomed ninth grade students.

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

Statewide, Ballard County ranked 110th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 110th 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
Ballard Memorial High School	99	36%	275