SE Bluegrass News

There were 75 multiracial students enrolled in Berea Independent School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 38.9% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Berea Independent School District welcomed 1,202 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, multiracial students comprised 6.2% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the district.

Berea Independent School District roughly covers three schools within Madison County and has a main office in Berea.

Among the three schools in Berea Independent School District, Berea Community Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of multiracial students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 40 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 Multiracial Students	Multiracial %
2022-23	1,202	75	6.2%
2021-22	1,283	54	4.2%
2020-21	1,305	54	4.1%
2019-20	1,245	48	3.9%