Kentucky Releases 2025-26 Assessment Data: Reading Proficiency Reaches Recent Highs at Every Level, Four-Year Graduation Rate Rises to 94.1%
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) on October 15 publicly released assessment and accountability data for the 2025-2026 school year, as required by state statute and the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The results show reading performance reaching recent highs at every grade level, with postsecondary readiness and graduation rates also improving, while mathematics results were flat or slightly lower and fewer schools earned the highest overall accountability ratings.
During the 2025-2026 school year, public school students in grades 3 through 8 and grades 10 and 11 took the Kentucky Summative Assessments in reading, mathematics, social studies, science, editing and mechanics, and on-demand writing. In reading, the share of students scoring proficient or distinguished rose across all grade spans: 50% in elementary school, up from 49% in 2025 and 45% in 2022; 48% in middle school, up from 47% in 2025 and 44% in 2022; and 49% in high school, up from 46% in 2025 and 44% in 2022. Fewer students scored at the novice level in reading at every level than in 2022.
Mathematics did not keep pace: proficiency was 43% in elementary school, unchanged from 2025; 40% in middle school, down from 41%; and 39% in high school, down from 40%. In science, elementary proficiency rose to 40% from 37% in 2025 and high school rose to 23% from 21%, while middle school slipped to 28% from 29%. Social studies results were broadly unchanged from the prior year.
Graduation and readiness measures were stronger. The four-year graduation rate was 94.1% and the five-year rate 94.5%, both the highest in the last five years of reporting. The statewide postsecondary readiness indicator score rose from 92.2 to 98.5, and the number of high schools earning the top blue rating on that indicator increased from 122 to 151, or 67% of high schools, up from 54% the previous year. Overall school ratings, however, included fewer green and blue ratings, mainly because Change scores — which measure year-to-year improvement — were much lower, even as current-year Status scores were similar to the prior year.
Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher commended students for their performance, saying, "There is still plenty of room for growth," and thanked districts and KDE staff for work in recent years on literacy and numeracy, which he said is showing signs of paying off.
KDE also noted that House Bill 257, approved by lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session, will change the state's assessment and accountability system beginning with the 2026-2027 school year and does not affect this year's results; because calculations and indicators will change, the department advised caution when comparing future results with the fall 2026 release. The full data are available on the Kentucky School Report Card Dashboard and KDE's Open House webpage.
(Source: Kentucky Department of Education, 2025-2026 assessment and accountability data release, October 15, 2026, via Kentucky Teacher)
Source: 肯塔基州教育部
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 肯塔基州纳尔逊县巴兹敦的托马斯·纳尔逊高中校舍（资料图，本次全州评估覆盖该州公立高中）。BlueShirtz 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons（File:Thomas Nelson High School 2020.jpg）。Thomas Nelson High School in Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky (representative image; Kentucky public high schools were covered by the statewide assessment). Photo by BlueShirtz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
