Jackson Purchase News

There were 189 African American students enrolled in Fulton County School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 8.7% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Fulton County School District welcomed 675 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 28% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the district.

Fulton County School District roughly covers three schools within Fulton County and has a main office in Hickman.

Among the three schools in Fulton County School District, Fulton County Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 93 students.

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.

Year	Total District Enrollment	Total African American Students	African American %
2022-23	675	189	28%
2021-22	684	207	30.3%
2020-21	675	206	30.5%
2019-20	691	204	29.5%