New state standardized testing results show Kenai Peninsula students are making slow but steady gains in math and reading proficiency. That’s according to last year’s statewide standardized Alaska System of Academic Readiness, or AK STAR, test scores, which the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development published earlier this month.
James Harris is the new assessment coordinator for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. He presented and contextualized the latest test results during a presentation to school board members Monday.
“We have several testing measures and tests that we use within the district, but this is ultimately the one that the state uses. It is measuring our students' ability to meet proficiency, meaning that they are at a level where they can accurately and completely and clearly meet the specific standards for ELA and math,” he said.
Last school year, more than 84% of the Kenai Peninsula’s third through ninth graders took the AK STAR assessment. That’s slightly higher than the statewide participation rate of around 80%.
Across all grade levels, about 38% of Kenai Peninsula students are proficient or advanced in English Language Arts. The same proportion are proficient or advanced in math. That’s about five percentage points higher than statewide proficiency levels.
Kenai Peninsula students historically outperform Alaska as a whole on the AK STAR assessment. But Alaska’s education commissioner said in a statement publishing the latest results that Alaska generally is “not where we need to be with student learning.”
Harris says the results do more than reflect student performance.
“It helps us evaluate our progress, find areas for improvement, and and focus our resources on those and our attention, and and and also focusing on what students need the most,” he said. “At your level as policymakers and school boards, it helps you determine what resources need to be allocated to help fill these learning goals.”
For example, the state wants all students to do a better job of identifying a central theme in texts, summarizing and understanding question types.
The state and school district also have specific assessment goals. The district wants students to bump their proficiency rates by five percentage points over the 2026 baseline. The state wants to boost the rate of students who take the test to 95%. All public school students in Alaska are required to take the AK STAR assessment, unless their parent opts out.
AK STAR is not the only standardized assessment Kenai Peninsula students take. The so-called MAP Growth assessments are administered three times per year and offer a clearer picture of how student performance evolves during the school year. Harris says student growth is always cause for celebration, even if they’re not yet hitting the state’s proficiency standards.
“You can't have achievement and proficiency without growth,” he said.
Moving forward, Harris says the district will take a few steps to help boost student proficiency on the AK STAR assessment, including administering practice tests and introducing students to assessment question types sooner.
Full AK STAR testing results are available on the state education department website.
