Why I am concerned about real KERA progress

White students comprise somewhere around 85 percent of Kentucky’s overall school population.

So, if we want to know how the vast majority of our kids compare to their peers in other states, one way to do that is to look at white only scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

This map shows how Kentucky’s white fourth grade students stacked up against whites in other states on the 2009 NAEP math assessment – not well at all! On this map, green is NOT GOOD for Kentucky.


In all those states shown in green – and there are a bunch of them – their white fourth graders definitely outscored ours by a statistically significant amount.

In the eight states shown in tan, their kids statistically tied us.

White fourth grade students in only in two states, West Virginia and Alabama, did more poorly than our kids did.

Even white kids in the notoriously under-performing Washington, DC schools outperformed our kids (Should I mention they have had charters and vouchers there?)!!!

And, Mississippi matched us!

That’s why, as KERA closes in on its 20th anniversary, I am concerned.

Note: Map assembled with the NAEP State Comparisons mapping tool