Jackson Purchase News

There were 3,481 students enrolled in Paducah Independent School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 0.4% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2022-23 school year, 51.8% of them were boys, and 48.2% were girls.

The most represented ethnicity among students in the district was white, making up 39.2% of the student population.

Paducah Independent School District roughly covers seven schools within McCracken County and has a main office in Paducah.

Among the seven schools in Paducah Independent School District, Paducah Tilghman High School recorded the highest enrollment of 936 students in the 2022-23 school year.

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.

Data also shows that between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 260% in the number of available teaching posts in Kentucky schools. This often leads to larger class sizes, combining programs, and retaining staff despite potential negative impacts on teacher working conditions.

School Name	Total Enrollment in 2021-22	Total Enrollment in 2022-23	% change
Paducah Tilghman High School	943	936	-0.7%
Paducah Middle School	727	717	-1.4%
Clark Elementary School	633	649	2.5%
Morgan Elementary School	403	415	3%
McNabb Elementary School	412	360	-14.4%
Paducah Head Start Preschool	229	276	20.5%
Choices Educational Center	120	128	6.7%