East Kentucky Times

There were 299 fourth grade students enrolled in Johnson County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 10.2% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

W. R. Castle Memorial Elementary School welcomed most of the fourth grade students in the county, registering 72 students.

Within Johnson County schools, the highest student population was found in 12th grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Johnson County ranked 40th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 40th 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 4th Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
W. R. Castle Memorial Elementary School	72	17.1%	421
Porter Elementary School	65	14.6%	445
Paintsville Elementary School	51	10.9%	467
Central Elementary School	47	12.2%	385
Highland Elementary School	45	9.7%	463
Flat Gap Elementary School	19	8.4%	226