Table of Contents
The Kentucky Department of Education's December 2025 briefing omitted required statistical significance markers, excluded all racial subgroup data, and entirely failed to present legally mandated ACT results showing serious declines that contradict the improving state assessment narrative. The department's switch to the SAT appears to violate state law, severs Kentucky's only continuous 18-year high school trend line, and has no public record of state board approval.
Key Findings:
- Legally required ACT results were entirely omitted and contradict the improving narrative. The ACT—Kentucky's longest continuous assessment trend line (18 years)—was not presented to the board or public. ACT scores have seriously declined since 2016-17, contradicting improving KSA high school trends.
- The ACT-to-SAT switch appears to violate state law and destroys accountability. The SAT lacks separate English and science sections required by KRS 158.6453, there's no public record of board approval, and it is difficult to not see this in light of the ACT’s inclusion of findings that are inconvenient to the Board.
- KDE’s presentation to the board was incomplete and misleading. KDE's December 2025 briefing omitted required statistical significance markers on NAEP data and didn't discuss disaggregated results by race, limiting the board's ability to evaluate actual student performance.
- Kentucky's performance is generally lower than a decade ago. When NAEP data are correctly analyzed over longer time periods, Kentucky students are performing worse than in 2013-2015 across multiple grades and subjects, despite recent KSA improvements.
For more on this topic, consider reading Mr. Innes' commentary piece Kentucky’s Switch to the SAT Violates Public Trust; It May Also Violate State Law.
