FRANKFORT, Ky. — Today is a day to own our truth. It is not a day for blame or finger-pointing. It is a day to come together with resolve. We will not let COVID wipe away the hard-fought gains in education of nearly four decades of improvement.
Today is a day for community members, parents, and educators to say we are all-in; in partnership with each other to support our young people, accelerate learning recovery, and continue our climb to the top of the nation in education, income, and quality of life. Division is for the weak. Now is when Kentucky’s unparalleled strength of collaboration and commitment can and must serve us well.
Newly released school assessment results and graduation rates clearly show Kentucky’s need for a groundswell of public action to strengthen Kentucky education.
At the Prichard Committee, we see these as key points in the Kentucky School Report Card data published:
- 45% of grade 3 students reached reading proficiency as measured by the 2022 Kentucky State Assessment
- 38% of grade 3 students reached mathematics proficiency on that assessment
- 44% of grade 8 students reached reading proficiency, and 36% reached math proficiency
- Across all assessed grades and subjects, the highest level of proficiency was 46% in grade 4 reading, and the lowest was 15% in grade 11 science
- 90% of students graduated within four years, based on tracking students who started grade 9 in the fall of 2019 through to graduation in the 2022 school year
It is important to note these indicators give only a partial sense of where we stand in our statewide efforts to equip each and every Kentucky student with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to participate fully in the development of our Commonwealth. Some of what matters is not visible in these numbers. For example, charts and tables are not easily shown in problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication capacities, and arts performance. The Prichard Committee supports attention to a full and rich vision of what it means to build a pathway to a larger life – with education at the core.
Even so, this new evidence is a call to action. Results are consistently lower than we saw in 2019, before the many disruptions of the pandemic. Breaking the results out by group underscores that we are not building fully on the strengths and capacities of Kentucky’s economically disadvantaged students, students with identified disabilities, African American students, and Hispanic or Latino students. For a strong and resilient Kentucky, we must ensure every Kentuckian is well prepared to meet the future.
Faced with this new data, we see clearly that Kentucky needs a groundswell of public action to support academic success. For every school and district, for every family and every community, it is time to come together to equip our rising generation for full participation in our society and community.
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