NE Kentucky News

There were 222 African American students enrolled in Mason County School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 1.3% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Mason County School District welcomed 2,732 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, African American students comprised 8.1% of the student body to be the third most represented ethnicity in the district.

Mason County School District roughly covers four schools within Mason County and has a main office in Maysville.

Among the four schools in Mason County School District, Mason County High School recorded the highest enrollment of African American students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 75 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	2,732	222	8.1%
2021-22	2,830	225	8%
2020-21	2,832	219	7.7%
2019-20	2,854	200	7%