Historical public education information in Kentucky, 2011-2015

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Kentucky's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Kentucky's public education page.

The Kentucky public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Kentucky had 681,987 students enrolled in a total of 1,565 schools in 194 school districts. There were 41,860 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 16 students, compared to the national average of 1:16. There was roughly one administrator for every 216 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Kentucky spent $9,309 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 34th highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 78 percent in 2012.

State agencies

See also: Kentucky Department of Education

The Kentucky Department of Education is responsible for the state's K-12 public schools. The Commissioner of Education is the chief administrator of the Department of Education. The Commissioner of Education is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Kentucky Board of Education. The officeholder was Terry Holliday as of 2015.

The Kentucky Board of Education is composed of 12 members, 11 of whom are voting members appointed by the Governor (seven from each of the state's Supreme Court districts and four selected at large). An additional member, the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, is a non-voting member. Members serve four-year terms.

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Kentucky compared to three neighboring states during the 2011-2012 school year with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Kentucky	1,565	194	681,987	41,860	1:16.3	1:215.9	$9,309
Tennessee	1,802	140	999,693	66,382	1:15.1	1:293.2	$8,242
Virginia	2,170	221	1,257,883	90,832	1:13.8	1:313.2	$10,364
West Virginia	759	57	282,870	20,247	1:14	1:250.5	$11,846
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12 U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Kentucky as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Kentucky's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	960	0.14%	1.10%
Asian	9,344	1.37%	4.68%
African American	73,380	10.76%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	531	0.08%	0.42%
Hispanic	29,457	4.32%	24.37%
White	553,406	81.15%	51.21%
Two or more	14,909	2.19%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the U.S.

During the 2011-2012 school year a plurality of students in Kentucky attended rural schools. Approximately 66 percent of the state's students attended rural or town schools, compared to the approximately 34 percent who attended city or suburban schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Kentucky	19.6%	14.6%	22.8%	43.1%
Tennessee	29.8%	16.1%	14%	40.2%
Virginia	23%	38.8%	6.9%	31.3%
West Virginia	13%	15.5%	21%	50.4%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia), Kentucky had the highest share of eighth grade students who scored at or above proficient in reading during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Kentucky	41%	30%	36%	38%
Tennessee	40%	28%	34%	33%
Virginia	47%	38%	43%	36%
West Virginia	35%	24%	27%	25%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state

See also: ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Kentucky and surrounding states in 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Kentucky***	78%	Fifth	19.8	100%	1,741	5%
Tennessee	87%	First	19.7	100%	1,709	8%
Virginia	83%	Second	22.4	25%	1,528	71%
West Virginia	79%	Third	20.6	68%	1,513	15%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1,498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. ***Kentucky calculated its graduation rate using a method other than the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Kentucky was lower than the national average at 2.5 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Kentucky

As of June 2015, school choice options in Kentucky included: open enrollment policies and some online learning programs. In addition, about 9.24 percent of school-age children in the state attended private schools in the 2011-2012 academic year, and an estimated 2.67 percent were homeschooled in 2012-2013.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Kentucky state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Kentucky spent approximately 19.8 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. As a share of the budget, this was down 0.80 percentage points, or 3.9 percent, from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 20.6 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Kentucky	19.8%	$9,309	16.4%	52.15%	31.46%
Tennessee	17.7%	$8,242	14.72%	45.75%	39.53%
Virginia	16%	$10,364	9.9%	37.11%	52.99%
West Virginia	10.8%	$11,846	14.73%	55.64%	29.63%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Kentucky totaled approximately $7.1 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Kentucky and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Kentucky	$1,164,688	$3,704,126	$2,234,478	$7,103,292
Tennessee	$1,272,825	$3,955,476	$3,417,293	$8,645,594
Virginia	$1,427,301	$5,351,177	$7,639,550	$14,418,028
West Virginia	$510,256	$1,927,726	$1,026,593	$3,464,575
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Kentucky totaled approximately $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Kentucky and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Kentucky	$6,264,504	$733,357	$254,031	$7,251,892
Tennessee	$7,977,696	$661,195	$295,742	$8,934,633
Virginia	$12,964,134	$1,075,067	$425,378	$14,464,579
West Virginia	$3,342,238	$269,242	$56,907	$3,668,387
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Kentucky, the average salary increased by 1.2 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Kentucky	$49,717	$52,884	$50,558	$50,326	1.2%
Tennessee	$49,645	$49,412	$47,866	$48,289	-2.7%
Virginia	$52,947	$53,388	$49,514	$49,869	-5.8%
West Virginia	$47,843	$49,059	$46,074	$46,405	-3%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012 the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Kentucky ranked 28th overall, or "average," which was in the third of five tiers.

The main unions related to the Kentucky school system are the Kentucky Education Association (KEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), and AFT Kentucky (KAPE), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

List of local Kentucky school unions:

• Kentucky Education Association
• AFT Kentucky
• Jefferson County Teachers Association
• AFT Frankfort
• Jefferson County Association of Educational Support Personnel
• Fayette County Education Association
• AFT Lexington

Government sector lobbying

See also: Kentucky government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Kentucky School Boards Association.

Transparency

Kentucky's Open Door provides state spending information, including expenditures on grants, contracts, and public employee salaries.The site can be accessed here.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Kentucky
• Kentucky
• Education Policy in the U.S.