The State of Education:

The state of education in Kentucky is troubling.

According to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (“The Nation’s Report Card”) only 35 percent of Kentucky 4th graders and 36 percent of Kentucky 8th Graders read “at or above” proficiency.

Less than one in three (31 percent) of Kentucky 8th graders were proficient in math. At the fourth grade level, only 26 percent of low income 4th grade children can handle math proficiently.

Twenty-five (25) percent of Kentucky freshman entering high school will not graduate within four years.  On average, those that graduate from a Kentucky high school are not ready for college.

Minority and low-income children are especially vulnerable toward falling into a trap of low educational attainment at an early age and remaining there for their entire lives. Consider the following. Only nineteen (19) percent of African-American 4th graders and thirteen (13) percent of African-American 8th graders can read proficiently. Only one in four 8th grade children from low-income families are proficient in reading while only 12% percent of African-American 8th graders are proficient in math.

The data continues to paint a very troubling picture.

Forty-two (42) percent of Kentucky’s African American 8th graders and forty-eight (48) percent of African-American 4th graders are “below basic” in reading. 39% of low-income Kentucky 4th graders cannot read at a basic level.

What is especially troubling is a “basic” understanding of subject matter is defined as having “a partial mastery and prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at every grade assessed.” To be “below basic” means these children lack even a partial-mastery of the building blocks of how to read.