The Marshall County School District is proud to announce that our district has achieved a GREEN rating on the 2026 KSA state assessment results, indicating that we are once again a High-Performing district.
Contributing to the district’s success are both Central Elementary and South Marshall Elementary who have achieved the highest possible BLUE rating on the latest Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA). Both schools performed “Very High”, or the highest level of performance, on a combination of indicators related to academic performance, including Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies & Writing.
Other notable areas of achievement include our high school, which received an overall GREEN rating, including achieving BLUE status in the area of postsecondary readiness, demonstrating students’ readiness in the areas of both academics as well as careers. Jonathan Elementary, Sharpe Elementary, and North Marshall Middle all achieved an overall GREEN rating as well, with Reading and Math scores having consistently increased over the past four years at the elementary level.
The assessment and accountability data for the 2025-2026 school year was released statewide today by the Kentucky Department of Education. Kentucky’s results show progress in key areas alongside a continued need for improvement. The results in reading climbed again to recent highs across all grade levels, while postsecondary readiness and graduation rates improved across nearly every demographic group. Results in other subjects were mixed, however, and fewer schools earned the highest overall accountability ratings.
“Kentucky students should be commended for their performance on Kentucky’s assessments,” Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher said. “There is still plenty of room for growth, but students in the Commonwealth have worked hard to master the content they have been learning, and there are many areas to be proud of.
“I also want to thank districts and KDE staff members for the hard work they have put in to address the areas of concern we have targeted the last several years, particularly with literacy and numeracy education. Those innovative initiatives show signs of paying off and increasing the quality of education our children receive.”
During the 2025-2026 school year, Kentucky public school students in grades 3-8, 10 and 11 took assessments called the Kentucky Summative Assessments and the Alternate Kentucky Summative Assessments in reading, mathematics, social studies, science, editing and mechanics, and on-demand writing.
Students take reading and mathematics assessments annually in grades 3 through 8, and in grade 10. Social studies, editing and mechanics, and on-demand writing were assessed in grades 5, 8 and 11. Science was assessed in grades 4, 7 and 11. The 2025-2026 administration was the final year for the editing and mechanics and on-demand writing assessments.
Lawmakers approved House Bill 257 during the 2026 legislative session, which establishes changes to Kentucky’s assessment and accountability system. The changes will take effect beginning with the 2026-2027 school year and do not affect the assessment and accountability results included in this year’s public release of data. Readers should use caution when comparing future results with the fall 2026 data release because the calculations and indicators will change.
Kentucky is in the final year of the current assessment and accountability system, which was established following revisions made to KRS 158.6455 by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2020. The accountability system features Status and Change as ways to evaluate state indicators; Status being the current-year performance and Change representing year-to-year progress.
Results are shared through a color-coded dashboard with five colors: blue, green, yellow, orange and red, in order from highest to lowest ranking.
The statewide 2025-2026 assessment and accountability data can be found on the Kentucky School Report Card Dashboard.
Full results for Marshall County Schools can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/537dk38p
Recognition events were held across the district today. Central Elementary and South Elementary celebrated their achievements with lots of blue. At SMES, school staff and district administrators greeted students upon arrival, handing out blue bracelets and blue leis. CES celebrated with an assemly in the gym, complete with award presentations and a blue balloon drop.
