Class of 2025 Shows Strong College-Readiness Performance
Oct. 15, 2025
Contact: Lisa McKinney, Communications Director, The Prichard Committee
(cell) 859-475-7202
lisa@prichardcommittee.org
Class of 2025 Shows Strong College-Readiness Performance
Time to Raise the Bar to the National Standards
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Congratulations to Kentucky’s Class of 2025 for ranking fourth in the nation among states testing all students on the ACT. With an average composite score of 18.4, Kentucky continues to stand out as a top performer among universal-testing states. This represents important progress for high school students who spent crucial school years learning from home during the COVID pandemic.
Kentucky students are performing just below college-readiness benchmarks both statewide and nationally. Under Kentucky’s system, students are considered college ready with ACT scores of 18 in English, 19 in Math, and 20 in Reading, while ACT’s national standards set slightly higher thresholds at 18 in English, 22 in Math, and 22 in Reading. Kentucky’s long-standing math benchmark reflects the readiness level historically accepted by the state’s colleges and universities, even as educators continue working to align instruction with national expectations.
“Encouragingly, more students are getting closer to those goals: two-thirds of the Class of 2025 retested, improving their superscores by an average of 2.3 points—a clear sign of growing determination and momentum toward readiness,” said Prichard Committee President and CEO Brigitte Blom. “As Kentucky continues to climb the rankings nationally in college preparedness, now is the time for the state to set an expectation that students meet the national standards for college-readiness. It’s time to raise the bar. Kentucky students are more than capable of competing with their peers nationally.”
The Prichard Committee believes in the power and promise of public education –early childhood through college– to ensure Kentuckians’ economic and social well-being. We are a citizen-led, non-partisan, solutions-focused nonprofit, established in 1983 with a singular mission of realizing a path to a larger life for Kentuckians with education at the core.