Why Kentucky Needs School Choice #1 – High Charter School Enrollment States and Grade 4 Reading

As Kentucky wallows on without a single charter school in the state, other parts of the country have been moving out to improve school choice options for students. The impact associated with charter schools is really showing for Black students in results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grade 4 Reading Assessments.

This table was assembled using the NAEP Data Explorer web tool.

 All of the listed states (except Kentucky) had the highest reported percentages of their total enrollment – at least 7% – located in charter schools in 2019. The percentages reported here were from the statistics for the NAEP 2019 Grade 4 Reading Assessment.

The 1992 and 2019 NAEP Grade 4 Reading Assessment Scale Scores for Black students in each state are also listed as found in the NAEP Data Explorer.

I then calculated the score differences for each state as shown in the far-right column. The table is rank ordered by those score changes.

I next inserted Kentucky’s information, positioning the Bluegrass State in the rankings according to its meager, three-point increase in Black Grade 4 NAEP Reading scores between 1992 and 2019. It wasn’t hard to add Kentucky to the table. It lands squarely at the bottom of the listing.

So, while vested self-interests in Kentucky try everything they can to kill the important school choice option of charter schools, the reality is that Black students clearly benefit when such options are available in their state.

Kentucky, it’s time. Our kids of color, in fact all our kids, deserve better.