KSA results for the 2025-2026 school year have been released and Marion County Public Schools continue to show high academic achievement throughout the district. Marion County High School, Lebanon Middle School, Marion County Middle School, and three of the district’s elementary schools -- Glasscock, Calvary, and West Marion -- received a Green rating, the second highest on the accountability scale. Lebanon Elementary was one notch below with a Yellow rating.
For MCPS Superintendent Chris Brady, the results are a reflection of continued focus on academic performance consistent throughout the district.
“A few years ago, we implemented broad changes to the way we approached instruction, and because our teachers and school administrators trusted those processes, we saw huge leaps in academic performance,” Brady said. “But now we’re at a point where we’re fine-tuning things. We won’t see as many huge increases, but that’s because we’ve already made such large strides. Instead, I’m excited to see steady, incremental improvements.
“Obviously, looking closely at the scores, there are certain pockets that need to improve, but what gives me confidence about the future is that those areas are very specific and isolated. That means we can use the resources we have available to address those specific concerns. But broadly speaking, I’m incredibly happy with these results and proud of our teachers and students.”
Notable aspects of the results include:
Lebanon Elementary improved by 20 percentage points in Social Studies
Marion County High School improved in every academic area, including double-digit increases in Science, Social Studies, and Writing; MCHS also showed improvement in Post-Secondary Readiness
Glasscock Elementary improved in Math, Science, Social Studies, and Writing
West Marion Elementary and Marion County Middle School both showed a 12 percent increase in Science
Lebanon Middle School increased in Reading, Math, Social Studies, and Writing
Calvary Elementary had gains in Reading, Social Studies, and Writing
Within the Central Kentucky Education Cooperative, Marion County ranked seventh out of 31 school districts.
Brady encouraged parents and community members to not focus exclusively on the color-coded scale from the results, but also look closely at school performance in certain areas.
You can view district and school results here: https://reportcard.kyschools.us/
“It’s easy to see which color rating a school received and assume that tells the entire story, but that’s not exactly the case,” Brady said.
For example, part of the calculation includes change from one year to the next, which tends to make it more difficult for higher performing schools to maintain their ratings and rewards schools that make significant improvement.
At this week’s Board of Education meeting, district and school administrators presented KSA results and discussed strategies for continued improvement moving forward. Those presentations also included historical data, which showed significant improvement throughout the district over the past five years.
“There may have been scores in individual areas that dipped this year compared to last year, but when you look at the historical data, we are incredibly improved,” Brady said.
Brady credited several things the district has emphasized over that time period as having the largest effect including:
Components of an Ideal Lesson -- specific aspects of teaching the district continually encourages from its teachers
Adoption of High Quality Instructional Resources -- research-based curriculum materials that have proven to be effective
Walk-Through Data Collection -- school and district administrators consistently make short visits to classrooms and collect information on the strategies being used
Decreased Emphasis on Technology Use -- some schools have screen-free days, and all schools have taken steps to limit how often students are using cell phones or Chromebooks
“Our principals and teachers have really bought into things we’ve emphasized as important, and the results have followed,” Brady said. “When you focus on what we know is effective, it should come as no surprise that our district has continued to improve.”
Brady also noted that the most important score for families should be that of their own children.
“The individual student report is what I hope parents are looking at most closely,” he said. “The school-wide, and district-wide results tend to get the most attention, but if you really want to understand how your child is performing and think about how you can support them academically, make sure you spend time looking at those results.”
If they have not already received them, parents can expect to receive a student report from their child’s school in the coming weeks.