FRANKFORT, Ky. — COVID-19 disrupted education for every student in Kentucky, and this year’s School Report Card reflects that.

The data returned this year after standardized tests were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass said it wouldn’t be appropriate to judge schools.

“It does sort of lead to this blaming of schools for the pandemic that we had and the experiences students had,” he said. “We know that everyone working in our schools worked really hard to try and keep learning going in spite of all the disruption.”

This year though, students from third grade on up were also given the Opportunity to Learn survey, which asks kids a few questions about how schools ran during the pandemic.

When asked if they felt good about what they learned during non-traditional instruction days, or NTI, 86.3% of elementary school kids said they agreed or strongly agreed, 62% of middle schoolers agreed or strongly agreed, but only 44% of high schoolers said they agreed or strongly agreed.

“In some ways, that data mirrors just the overall trend in engagement that we’ve seen in schools for many years; that elementary schools are very engaged, very positive about learning experiences and excited about learning,” Glass said. “And over time, that engagement diminishes throughout high school until around the 11th grade, then it comes back up a little bit.”

Glass said responses were positive across the board, even if high schoolers were less confident in their schools than younger kids.

“And it should beg some serious questions for all of us about what we can do to make middle school and high school much more engaging, meaningful experiences for students,” he said. “How we can change the kind of work they do where it draws students in and keeps that love of learning that we know that elementary kids have.”

The full set of data can be found here.