This article shares findings from an exploratory case study about an advanced leadership development program for administrator-certified practitioners in a Central Appalachian school district. The goal of the Principals Excellence Program, one of 24 projects supported by federal funds through the No Child Left Behind School Leadership Development…

This paper discusses Kentucky School Reform and its impact on higher education; how Alice Lloyd College engages with teaching practitioners to address their needs through service learning and service leadership development; and potential applications of the program in other institutions. The paper recommends that future service learning ventures:…

This paper describes the Kentucky Department of Education's (KDE's) multi-faceted approach to professional development and provides evidence for its impact on schools' achievement of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) goals. Data are drawn from the exemplary case study component of a larger research project. Many Kentucky school districts…

The 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act catapulted a "backwater" state to leadership prominence in structural reform. Grounded on school-readiness and community-involvement precepts, KERA links schools and social service agencies and provides family resource/youth services centers to coordinate social service delivery for preschool…

This research examined how three elementary school principals conceptualized within the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 the development of teacher leaders. Two major criteria were used to select these principals: (a) their schools had continuous student achievement for three consecutive biennia despite high levels of student poverty;…

Describes how a doctoral studies reform initiative was conducted at the University of Kentucky. Funded by a Danforth grant, the new educational administration program stresses school leadership and educational reform and was inspired by demand for distance learning technology, the Kentucky Education Reform Act, and an opportunity for hiring new…

Kentucky high schools are attempting to address requirements of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA). This study was conducted to collect and interpret data related to the implementation of high school restructuring and make recommendations. Thirty-three schools were invited to participate based on categories of restructuring,…

Public education in Kentucky schools was fundamentally changed in 1990 with the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). This educational reform--mandated by the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that funding for Kentucky public school districts was neither adequate nor equitably distributed--established a platform on which standards-based…

In 1988 the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld a previous decision that the state public education system had failed to provide an efficient system of common schools. The Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA, 1990) came from this decision. This paper reviews the restructuring of a primary school under the KERA, focusing on one collaborative effort…

As part of an 8-year study of education reform in rural Kentucky, this report examines the primary program that has evolved in six rural elementary schools as a result of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which requires that grades K-3 be replaced by a nongraded program. This change aimed to eliminate failure in the first 2 years of…

From 1990 to 2000, a qualitative study of the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) was conducted in four small rural school districts in Kentucky. KERA reflects key components of what would later be termed "systemic reform": a unifying set of goals that all students must attain, a coherent system of instructional…

This paper addresses misconceptions about the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Advocates claim that there has never been a statewide school reform of KERA's significance and magnitude. However, Kentucky legislators, both in 1909 and in the mid-1950s, passed governance and finance reforms considered to be as revolutionary as those of KERA. A…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 was adopted after the Kentucky Supreme Court declared the state's system of schools unconstitutional. The purpose of this study was to identify the sources of information about KERA and to describe community attitudes toward KERA in rural Kentucky school districts during the first few months the law…

This case study examined the process of change employed by a rural Kentucky elementary school identified as having successfully implemented the state's primary program. The main purpose of the study was to analyze how the school implemented the primary program based on characteristics of effective change. The case study was based on a total of 23…

This paper presents the insights of superintendents about the school restructuring process in Kentucky and its likely effects. Data were derived from a focus group held with 24 members of the Kentucky Educational Development Corporation (KEDC), and from a survey of 48 superintendents, of which 35 responded. A majority of respondents expressed…