24 African American students enrolled in Ballyshannon Middle School in 2022-23 school year

There were 24 African American students enrolled in Ballyshannon Middle School in the 2022-23 school year, 9.1% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Ballyshannon Middle School welcomed 651 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 3.7% of the student body to be the fourth most represented ethnicity in the school.

The school is located in Boone County School District with a central office in Florence.

Among the 28 schools in Boone County School District, Boone County High School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 173 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.