Some good news from Kentucky testing

The plan to give a coordinated set of tests from the ACT, Incorporated to boost college preparation of Kentucky’s students seems to be working, at least for three of four academic subjects. These tests, known as “EPAS tests,” have been given to all of Kentucky’s eighth grade and tenth grade students since the fall of 2006.

A longitudinal comparison of the percentages of students scoring at or above the Benchmark scores that signal adequate preparation for college is shown in this figure. The same group of students took both tests in different years.


These students made notable improvement in performance in English between their eighth and tenth grade year. Improvement is also evident in the percentage of students who increased readiness for college level reading and science courses.

The only performance decline was in mathematics, a perennial problem subject in Kentucky.

While this first-time analysis looks at the performance of only one class, it is generally encouraging and hints that the law establishing this new testing program in Kentucky may indeed spur more students to be fully prepared for college. We will learn more next year when this same group of students takes the ACT college entrance test next spring, completing their journey through the new EPAS program.

The percentages above were computed by subtracting the cumulative percentage of students scoring just below the benchmark scores in each subject from 100 percent. The cumulative percentages are found in Table 1a in the respective years’ EXPLORE and PLAN profile summary reports.