The pandemic has had a monumental impact on all Kentuckians.

What students, teachers, and families had to endure, and what the state has been able to overcome to structure learning in these unprecedented times, is worth remembering. The best efforts of our teachers, students, and families to rise above the global pandemic to create meaningful learning opportunities must be acknowledged.

“Participation on the state assessment was lower due to COVID-19 and in-person testing requirements. Comparisons with previous years are not appropriate because number of test takers, changes to the assessment, and modified instructional settings.”

That’s what the 2021 Kentucky School Report Card website tells you first when you look for this year’s assessment results. The Department of Education clearly think that’s important, and after studying the data for a while, I agree.

Nearly 60 years ago, Ned Breathitt, Kentucky’s 51st governor, addressed his fellow Kentuckians during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the Summer of 1964. Gov. Breathitt made plain his vision for Kentucky’s future:

“Ours is the vision and ours is the growing reality of a great society in which the accidents of race and color, parentage and poverty, and location and geography will not be allowed to dim the light of human hope and to cripple the possibilities of human growth.”

A 2020 call by a statewide group of teachers urged school leaders to prepare more of their peers to design school improvements led to focused training in one Kentucky district. The Daviess County school district saw the document as a vehicle to inform and support teacher-led solutions.