Kentucky

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Kentucky Education Profile

Caspian Ahlberg

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Buy Kentucky State Flag Online | Printed & Sewn Flags | 13 sizesHomepage - Kentucky Department of Education

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Data Collection

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Totals

In total, Kentucky’s student population during 2019 and 2020 was 647,987. As of 2022, 34,816 students are receiving English language services. Within the group of students receiving these services, 125 different languages are spoken, with the most prominent ones spoken at home being Spanish, Arabic, and Somali [1]. After primary and secondary school, these are the most common sectors to go into:

  • College: 49.9%
  • Technical Training: 4.7%
  • Military: 2.9%
  • Working: 21%
  • Work-School Combination: 8.1%
  • Other: 13.2%

Money/ExpendituresThe Past, Present And Future Of Global Money Transfer

Kentucky’s total state public education budget in 2022 was $5,088,677,500 [1]. Regarding expenditures, its average per-pupil expenditure was $14,331 [1]. During 2021, its per-pupil expenditures ranged quite a lot. East Bernstadt Independent ranked last, coming in at $8,698. Anchorage Independent came first, with an expenditure of $21,431 per pupil {3}. Overall, Kentucky spends more per student than the average state, which is $12,624 [2].

Student Race/Ethnicity, 2022 [1]

  • White: 75.3%
  • African American: 10.6%
  • Hispanic: 7.6%
  • Asian: 1.9%
  • Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.14%
  • Native American: 0.13%

Student Poverty Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 2020 [4]

  • White: 15.0%
  • African American: 24.4%
  • Latino: 23.0%
  • Asian: 12.9%
  • Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: data not available
  • Native American: 20.0%

In Kentucky, African Americans have the most poverty out of every other racial demographic. I speculate that this is because of the centuries of systemic racism faced by African Americans in the US. Also, note the high poverty rate for Native Americans, despite the fact that they constitute only 0.13% of the population. The US’s founding is inherently tied to the oppression of its Native American population, who had resided here for more than 15,000 years prior. Given the horrid quality of life on Native American reservations, this high level of poverty makes sense.

Teacher Demographics [1]

  • The total number of primary and secondary school educators in Kentucky is 42,304 (for 2019-2020).
    • White: 40,241 (95.1%)
    • Minority: 2,063 (4.9%)
    • Male: 9,480 (22.4%)
    • Female: 32,824 (77.6%)

The data from the Kentucky website is quite general here, and does not include other genders, or elaborate on races other than white. Despite the data’s lack of comprehensiveness, it still shows the lack of teacher diversity: teachers are overwhelmingly white and female.

Graduation Rates, Four-Year [1]

  • 2019-2020: 91.1%
  • 2018-2019: 90.6%
  • 2017-2018: 90.3%

As seen from this, the four-year graduation rate has been slowly but steadily increasing for Kentucky. Data by demographics for this was not available.

Other Data 

  • The website for the Next Generation Science Standards lists Kentucky’s support for the standard as this: “Kentucky requires that all students take three credits of science which must include lab-based investigation experiences and the content strands of biological science, physical science, earth and space science, and unifying concepts” [6].
  • The Department of Education website for Kentucky lists Kentucky’s average teacher salary as $54,372, as of 2022 [1]. The National Science Foundations’ website lists the salary for $53,907, as of 2020 [5]. Even though the average salary has increased a little bit over the past two years, Kentucky still ranks low compared to other states as seen here, ranked 36th. See the graph below for a visualization of this. [5]

  • Teacher evaluation methods and measures: TODO (optional)

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Data Analysis

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A Major Example of Inequality

 

One of the major reasons for educational inequality in Kentucky is a disparity in funding between different districts. Recent research by the KCEP (the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy) shows that “wealthy districts had $2,840 more in state and local revenue per student than poor districts in the 2018/19 school year (the most recent for which data is available)” [6]. This, in a way, mirrors the increasing wealth disparity between the lower/middle class and the upper class in the US as well. As mentioned above, with East Bernstadt Independent spending an average of $8,698 per student, and Anchorage Independent spending $21,431 per pupil, the large variance in funding means that many will receive a worse education than others within the state.

 

Much of the reason for this disparity is because of the way that schools are funded. School districts get their funding from “property taxes, income surtaxes, and a gross receipts tax on utilities” [8]. Because more affluent areas will have more expensive houses, spend more money (which leads to higher surtaxes), and spend more on utilities in a larger living space, already well-off communities have much better funded schools than the rest. If a school is better funded, pupils will have more access to educational opportunities that others would not have, giving them an early advantage in life. School funding based on sources such as property tax perpetuate poverty across many generations: schools with improper funding cannot educate children as well, so when they grow up, the lack of opportunities that those students had early on disadvantages them so that they cannot afford housing in nicer areas. So then, their kids are stuck in this same loop.

 

Where Does The Achievement Gap Persist?

Kentucky’s department of education has released a report that analyzes whether schools are closing the achievement gap (which is caused by the funding gap) [9]. In the report, they found that it’s not consistent how Kentucky’s schools are closing this gap: many schools are narrowing the gap, whereas others are widening it.

 

What Are Schools Doing To Combat Gaps?

Kentucky’s website for their department of education has a section that is dedicated to combating this gap [10}. The core idea behind the website is to begin by identifying students who fall into commonly marginalized categories, and then help them more than usual (this is essentially affirmative action). They identify the three most common gap types as ones of achievement, opportunity, and learning. One method that they cite to accommodate to students of all backgrounds is to “teachers must relate teaching content to the cultural backgrounds of their students. Culturally responsive teaching, a pedagogy that crosses disciplines and cultures to engage learners while respecting their cultural integrity, is essential to be effective in diverse classrooms” [10]. They also cite methods for helping students with learning disabilities, ethnic minorities, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students. Though there are bound to be countless other techniques designed to help narrow gaps caused by inequality in the education sector, this highlights some of the most common ones that Kentucky employs. Given Kentucky’s low lack of diversity for its teachers (95.1% are white, and 77.6% are female, as mentioned earlier), bias towards one’s own demographics is much more likely if such techniques are not employed.

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Bibliography (Chicago)

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  1. Raghavapuram, Shravanthi. “Kentucky Education Facts.” Kentucky Education Facts – Kentucky Department of Education, 2022. https://education.ky.gov/comm/edfacts/Pages/default.aspx.
  2. Hanson, Melanie, and Fact Checked. “U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics [2022]: Per Pupil + Total.” Education Data Initiative, March 21, 2022. https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics.
  3. McCann, Adam. “Most & Least Equitable School Districts in Kentucky.” WalletHub, August 3, 2021. https://wallethub.com/edu/e/most-least-equitable-school-districts-in-kentucky/77082.
  4. “Kentucky Report – 2020.” Talk Poverty, 2022. https://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/kentucky-2020-report/.
  5. “Science & Engineering State Indicators.” Public School Teacher Salaries | State Indicators | National Science Foundation – State Indicators, December 15, 2021. https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators/states/indicator/public-school-teacher-salaries.
  6. “Lead State: Kentucky.” Lead State: Kentucky | Next Generation Science Standards. https://www.nextgenscience.org/lead-state-kentucky.
  7. Baumann, Anna. “Inequality between Rich and Poor Kentucky School Districts Grows Again Even as Districts Face New COVID Costs and Looming Revenue Losses.” Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, December 11, 2020. https://kypolicy.org/new-analysis-inequality-between-rich-and-poor-kentucky-school-districts-grows-again-even-as-districts-face-new-covid-costs-and-looming-revenue-losses/.
  8. “FundEd: State Policy Analysis (Kentucky).” EdBuild, 2022. http://funded.edbuild.org/state/KY.
  9. Butler, Aaron, and Hannah Poquette. “Closing The Achievement Gap – Kentucky Department Of Education.” Are Kentucky’s Districts Closing The Achievement Gap? https://education.ky.gov/CommOfEd/CDU/SiteAssets/Pages/Research/Closing%20the%20Achievement%20Gap.pdf.
  10. Greer, Susan. “Resources and Strategies for Gap Closure.” Resources and Strategies for GAP Closure – Kentucky Department of Education, 2021. https://education.ky.gov/school/stratclsgap/instruction/Pages/gap.aspx.