(Frankfort, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), in partnership with the Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYStats), has launched the Kentucky School Proficiency Dashboard, a web-based tool that compares proficiency levels of Kentucky schools and districts.

The interactive tool displays academic overviews, academic performance by race and economic status, and a comparison tool for each school and district in the state. It can be found online at kystats.ky.gov/reports. The dashboard highlights the percentage of public students scoring proficient or above in each subject area by school level (elementary, middle or high).

“The Kentucky Center for Statistics, led by Executive Director Kate Akers, has done an outstanding job of distilling the 2018 K-PREP test score data of Kentucky’s 173 districts and 1,435 public schools,” said Kentucky Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis. “With the test score release back in October, we learned that we have stalled in improving achievement. I believe there is a renewed commitment in Kentucky to raise the bar and close achievement gaps. This interactive tool provides a visual representation of disparities in achievement between groups of students.”

The School Proficiency Dashboard is one of four components of KDE’s School Report Card. The second component is KDE’s Open House website, which provides access to supplemental school and district data. It can be found online at openhouse.education.ky.gov/Data.

The Infinite Campus portal is the third component to Kentucky’s School Report Card. It is a parent-friendly portal where parents can find information on their children via a smartphone mobile app. Information includes attendance, grades and behavior events – with notifications as new items are entered. Each district has a unique website address, so parents are urged to contact their school or district for Infinite Campus login information.

The fourth component of Kentucky’s School Report Card remains under development by BrightBytes, a third-party vendor who was awarded the website development contract last year. This component will include data metrics and visualizations to highlight key information about schools and districts. This includes school demographics, test performance, teacher qualifications, student safety, parental involvement and more.

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), each state in the U.S. was required to create an online school report card as part of its statewide accountability system.

“We are working hard to ensure that Kentucky parents and educators have great tools available to see and understand the performance of our schools,” said Lewis. “We are fortunate that KYStats was able to create a product that enhances transparency and understanding of education outcomes for Kentuckians.”