Education in Kentucky

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Education in Kentucky includes elementary school (kindergarten through fifth grade in most areas), middle school (or junior high, sixth grade through eighth grade in most locations), high school (ninth through twelfth grade in most locations), and post-secondary institutions. Most Kentucky schools and colleges are accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).^[1]

Education in Kentucky is recorded at 45th in the United States, establishing it as one of the least educated states in the US, based on the percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree.^[2] In 1997 Kentucky was estimated to have 40% of working age adults with "low literacy skill levels...likely to impede their personal advancement".^[3][4] Education in Kentucky has been ranked 14th in educational affordability,^[2] 25th in K-12 attrition,^[5] and was named the 31st most intelligent state using a formula by Morgan Quitno Press^[6] (ahead of western states such as California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico).

Lexington, Kentucky ranks 10th among US cities for having a high percent of the population awarded with a college degree or higher.^{[7][obsolete source]}

After a number of reforms beginning in 1990 have assisted the state of Kentucky in making progress in the area of education. For example, the percentage of the population of Kentucky "lacking basic prose literacy skills" was 19% in 1992, with only five states having a higher percentage and by 2003, the percentage of Kentucky's population that lacked basic literary skills decreased to 12%, with twenty-one other states having higher rates.^[8]