Monday, we celebrated Kentucky’s important progress in postsecondary attainment, as reported in the Council for Postsecondary Education’s 2020 Stronger By Degrees Progress Report, and Wednesday, we took a further look at undergraduate credentials being earned by students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, noting growth for nearly every student group from 2015 to 2019.

To continue our week of attention to excellence with equity in Kentucky higher education, I want to deepen the analysis, drawing from CPE’s excellent interactive data reporting and looking at changes happening earlier in the postsecondary pipeline.

Monday, I shared some major points from the Council on Postsecondary Education’s most recent progress report. For attention to equity, that report gave clear information on progress in graduating low-income students, but there’s more to be said about what’s happening for students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The Council on Postsecondary Education’s 2020 Stronger By Degrees Progress Report offers progress worth celebrating in overall educational attainment, KCTCS graduation rates, and STEM+H degrees, along with slower progress on bachelor graduation rates and a concerning decline in recent high school graduates enrolling in higher education. Here comes a closer look at those developments.

I moved to Kentucky in 1990, right as KERA was happening, and was thrilled. You see, I lived in one of the New Jersey school districts that sued for fairer funding and won a landmark ruling, and I knew that 17 years later, those districts were still in court. Then I moved here, where the Rose decision was not yet one year old and state leaders had already adopted a comprehensive approach to reform.

When new assessment results come out, I barely glance at how we’re serving female students and male students, even as I’m hurrying to see what progress Kentucky delivered (or failed to deliver) for other groups. This post offers a quick look at why gender isn’t at the top of my equity concerns in Kentucky P-12 education.

On 2019 KPREP math and science assessments, our schools didn’t produce identical scores for female and male students, but they got pretty close, with slight male leads on two tests and small female leads on four.

Kentucky’s K-12 data may show only small STEM gaps by gender, but postsecondary STEM degrees are another matter. At our public universities, female students are a majority of enrolled students and bachelor degree recipients, but a small minority of STEM degree recipients, and the drop-off is much worse for female students seeking associate degrees. Using data from the Council on Postsecondary Education’s data portal, here’s one way to see the problem.

The SEEK formula is the main source of K-12 education funding for Kentucky students. SEEK is short for Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, and the formula works by combining state and local dollars, in four main steps.

Discussion of SEEK has been heating up in recent weeks, with concerns about the formula’s adequacy and equity, including important recent coverage by WEKU and WFPL. And with the General Assembly due to start budget work in two months, the topic is sure to stay in the news.

Kentucky did not gain ground in the newest results from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). We need to own that truth in…

Only 30 Kentucky schools have significant achievement gaps between African American students and the school’s top scoring racial or ethnic group? That’s what this…

Statewide, 2019 assessment results show little improvement compared to 2018. Here, I’ll look at reading, math, and science results, using those trends to call for major renewal of our statewide efforts to build excellence with equity.

So, here’s a look at elementary reading.