Kentucky reading scores rose. Why did school ratings fall?

Kentucky’s reading results improved even as fewer schools received the state’s highest overall ratings. Assessment data released October 15 show that 50% of elementary students scored proficient or distinguished in reading in 2025–26, compared with 49% the year before. Middle school results rose from 47% to 48%, and high school results from 46% to 49%.

The two measures answer different questions. Reading results describe performance in one subject, while overall ratings combine several indicators. Kentucky’s accountability system also weighs current performance, called “Status,” alongside year-to-year progress, called “Change.” The Kentucky Department of Education attributes the lower overall ratings mainly to weaker Change scores, with Status scores remaining similar.

“Overall ratings combine many measures, so reading progress and school ratings can move separately,” said Terry Scott, executive director of the Kentucky Reading Research Center at the University of Louisville.

For UofL’s College of Education and Human Development, the results connect the interpretation of school performance with research on professional learning. The center, a partnership between CEHD and KDE, studies literacy instruction. A March 2026 report by UofL researcher Sangbaek Park examined 574 elementary schools across 135 districts, using data from 2021–22 through 2024–25. Schools with a larger share of teachers trained in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS, had a larger share of students scoring in the Proficient category after adjustment for baseline performance and school characteristics.
That finding concerns Proficient as a separate achievement category. The adjusted school-level analyses did not find statistically significant results for the combined Proficient-and-Distinguished measure used in the statewide reading figures. The study is observational and covers earlier years; it does not establish what caused the 2025–26 gains.

“Our job is to keep studying what’s working so that teacher preparation and professional learning can build on it,” Scott said. For educator preparation and school leadership, that means examining subject results and classroom evidence alongside an overall rating when deciding where instructional support is needed.

The next reporting cycle will require another distinction. Kentucky’s assessment and accountability changes begin with the 2026–27 school year. KDE cautions that future results will use different indicators and calculations, so a change in a school’s color rating will need to be read in the context of the measures behind it.

Sources
KDE October 15 assessment and accountability release
Park March 2026 LETRS report
Kentucky Reading Research Center team
WKYT October 15 reporting