Consistent with the guidelines set forth by the US Department of Education (USED) and Kentucky regulations, summative and other state assessments will continue to be administered for the upcoming school year.
The resources below are provided to foster understanding of assessment and accountability data reporting and assist in answering accountability questions that may arise from the public data release.
Assessments
The Kentucky state assessments serve as valuable tools for measuring student performance and identifying areas for improvement. Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA), Alternate Kentucky Summative Assessment (AKSA), College Admissions Exam, WIDA ACCESS, the Common Kindergarten Entry Screener (K SCREEN), and postsecondary readiness measures are the state assessments that form the foundation of our data release process, which feeds into the current year's school accountability system. Collecting and analyzing this data gives us valuable insights into student achievement and progress. For more information on each assessment, please visit the KDE Assessment webpage.
Accountability
The 2022-2023 school year was the first full implementation of the accountability system based on Senate Bill 158 (2020). The accountability system's overall performance for each district, school and student demographic group, determined by the state indicators, combines current year performance, called "Status," and improvement from the prior year to the current year, called "Change."
The 2025-2026 school year is the final reporting year under Kentucky's current accountability model. Changes established by House Bill 257 (2026) take effect beginning in 2026-2027 and are not reflected in the 2025-2026 results released publicly in fall 2026.
Accountability Reporting
Kentucky's School Report Card
displays an online dashboard for the school, district, and state's overall performance for schools, districts, and the state as a whole and for individual student demographic groups. This comprehensive dashboard provides a transparent view of the schools' performance levels, allowing stakeholders to assess progress and identify areas of improvement. The performance levels are color-coded, using a rating system that includes five levels from highest to lowest: Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Each color rating represents a specific performance level, providing a quick visual reference for understanding the schools' performance.
In addition to overall performance, the School Report Card also indicates the status and change in performance for each indicator. The status levels will be reported as "very high, high, medium, low, and very low." The change levels are reported as "increased significantly, increased, maintained, decreased, and decreased significantly." This information will enable stakeholders to assess not only the current status of schools but also the progress or regression over time. Indicator performance ratings combine status and change and are reported using a color rating system to communicate the performance of schools on each state indicator. Similar to the Overall Performance Level, Indicator Performance will include five performance levels from highest to lowest: Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. By incorporating both status and change levels, the online dashboard provides a comprehensive and dynamic representation of schools' performance, facilitating informed decision-making and targeted interventions to support student success.
Public Release Resources
Materials
Nondisclosure Agreements
Cut Scores for KSA and Alternate KSA
2025-2026
Previous years available upon request by contacting
dacinfo@education.ky.gov.