Prichard Committee Secures Unprecedented $47 Million Grant; Seeks 16 Additional School Districts for its Community Schools Initiative

Oct. 3, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lisa McKinney

‍lisa@prichardcommittee.org

(cell) 859-475-7202

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‍Kentucky Test Scores Show Slight Improvement

Community Accountability Necessary to Quicken the Pace

A statement from Brigitte Blom, President and CEO

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LEXINGTON, Ky -- In the new public school learning results data released today by the Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky has seen improvement in four of the measures that the Prichard Committee most closely tracks. Compared to 2023, the new data release shows:

• A 2% increase in the kindergarten readiness of students entering school last fall
• A 1% increase in grade 3 students scoring proficient or above in reading
• A 1% increase in grade 8 mathematics proficiency
• A 1% increase in the four-year high school graduation rate

There was no progress on two other priority measures:

• No increase in grade 3 mathematics proficiency
• A 3% decline in grade 8 reading proficiency

Even the measures that have improved remain far from Kentucky’s long-term goals. For example, only 47% of 2024 third-grade students were proficient or above in reading. If we continue improving at a pace of 1% each year, it could take 53 years to get all Kentucky students to the proficient level in that foundational subject.The results released today also confirm the urgency of Kentucky’s work to ensure that students of all backgrounds thrive in our schools:

• Even as grade 3 reading proficiency rose overall, it declined for English learners and for students with disabilities and showed no improvement for economically disadvantaged students and Hispanic or Latino students.  
• Grade 8 math results also rose overall, but showed no improvement for African American, Hispanic or Latino students and English learners. In slightly better news, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities did see grade 8 mathematics improvement that was a bit stronger than that of their classmates.
• The other indicators provide similar evidence that we have not yet moved beyond our historic failures in closing achievement gaps.

The Prichard Committee will be doing further analysis on postsecondary readiness. It is difficult to compare this year’s 81% readiness rate directly to last year’s 79% rate, because this is the first year that readiness includes students who have been successful in work-based learning. While including that data going forward is beneficial, our analysis will need to consider how it affects year-to-year comparisons. We are also concerned to see that the percent of students reaching ACT benchmarks has declined and look forward to studying those patterns in more depth. If graduation rates remain steady or increase while postsecondary readiness measures decrease, that raises questions about how meaningful Kentucky’s high school diplomas are for preparing students for post-graduation life.

In response to today’s new data, the Prichard Committee urges Kentuckians in every community to review the results and develop new local efforts to ensure that our public schools offer all learners the full opportunities and supports they need to flourish. As a starting point, communities can work together on active family and community engagement, expanded and enriched learning times, integrated supports, and collaborative leadership and practices to support high-quality teaching.

The Prichard Committee also urges stronger state-level policy efforts and financial investments in our public schools. The new LETRS (Read to Succeed) program is off to a promising start, and added funding for kindergarten and school transportation are important starting points, but we need to do more as a commonwealth. Kentucky must deepen our efforts on teaching quality, working conditions, and shortages, and we must strengthen state SEEK funding, including meeting full transportation costs. Now is the time to invest appropriately in public education and ensure public dollars are not being diverted from the public schools that educate the vast majority of Kentucky students.

Overall, Kentucky’s future demands renewed and strengthened commitment to public schools that can equip each and every graduate has the durable skills and the depth of knowledge to succeed as adult learners, as workforce participants, and as contributors to our communities. It is every community members’ responsibility to help build a Big, Bold Future for the commonwealth with education at its core. Let’s get to work.

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This morning, the Kentucky Department of Education released important Kentucky State Assessment (KSA) results and other indicators that matter for our public schools. As an added way to see some of the major patterns in that data, the Prichard Committee has created a 2023-24 Snapshot approach to statewide elementary school, middle school, and high school data and showing:

• The statewide percent of students who scored proficient or distinguished in reading, mathematics, science, social studies, and writing on the 2023 KSA
• Results for all students, for students who are and are not identified as English learners, for students with and without identified disabilities, for students with and without economic disadvantage, for students in seven groups by race and ethnicity, and for female and male students
• A single page display for elementary school results and for middle school results
• A two page display for high school results, with one page for KSA and another for ACT results, graduation rate, and postsecondary readiness rate

Unsurprisingly, the results shows that we have important work ahead to reach 100% proficiency and readiness, and they continue to show differences in how well we are serving students with different backgrounds and needs. For example, here’s a quick look at elementary school reading results, combining grades 3,4, and 5.

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If we engage this data with candor and concern, it can strengthen our work to ensure that all Kentucky learners are welcome, respected, and empowered in our public schools.

As communities and as a commonwealth, we need public schools to equip every student in our rising generation to play a full role in Kentucky’s Big Bold Future.

Please do take a look at the new Snapshot data for each level.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aug. 20, 2024

Contact: Lisa McKinney

(cell) 859-475-7202

lisa@prichardcommittee.org

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The Prichard Committee releases analysis of ‘school choice’ Amendment 2

Committee issues statement of opposition to the amendment

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(LEXINGTON, Ky) --The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence today released an analysis of Amendment 2, a proposed amendment to Kentucky’s Constitution that would allow the allocation of public funds to school choice options beyond traditional public schools. The analysis, which outlines the potential financial and education outcomes of the amendment, found that funding private K12 educational institutions is not an appropriate or effective use of public funds.  

Amendment 2 will appear on ballots in November.  

“An amendment to Kentucky’s constitution that opens the door to private school choice with public dollars is likely to have significantly negative consequences for Kentucky’s long-standing march to improve education outcomes,” said Prichard Committee President/CEO Brigitte Blom. “Diverting public dollars to private school choice options creates the conditions for an unregulated market with no accountability to the taxpayers who fund it, and no durable research that warrants such an investment.”

The amendment's passage would allow the legislature to direct public funds to support private schools (including parochial schools), homeschooling, and charter schools through various financial mechanisms like vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts.

Diverting funds to private schools is shown to spread scarce resources across more providers, thereby reducing overall access and improvement to quality in education, especially in areas where there is population decline. This will certainly be true in rural areas of the state and could likely be true for the state as a whole with population decline forecasted in the years to come.  

Additionally, Amendment 2 would open the door to the state investing in education options that create barriers for accountability. Public schools are held to accountability standards of which private and parochial schools, as well as homeschools, are currently exempt.    

Research shows that in states with high participation in school choice programs, a significant portion of funds frequently benefit wealthier families, leaving low- and middle-income families with less funding for the public schools these families rely on. Ensuring public funds stay within the public education system supports a fair distribution of resources to help ensure better outcomes for all students, the analysis found.  

Additionally, public schools are required to serve all students, including those with disabilities and the need for additional support. Many private schools are not required to guarantee the same level of support for students with learning differences, and the requirement to serve all children falls back to the public system, with fewer resources.

“Investing state dollars in what works is critical, and even more so in a state like Kentucky where we've risen from the bottom of the national rankings since the 1990s to roughly the middle today,” said Blom. “While there is clearly more work to be done to continue to improve education outcomes - and parents can and must demand that improvement - now is not the time to spend shared public dollars on strategies with no durable outcomes at best - and negative outcomes at worst.”  

Read the Prichard Committee’s full analysis here.  

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