This brief is part of a four-part series examining the past, present, and future of modern school accountability systems. With the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national call to action on racial inequity, the question of how we should measure and hold schools accountable for the impact they have on students is more urgent than ever.…

The passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in the 1990s made Kentucky one of the first states to initiate comprehensive education reform. It established a legislatively mandated goal that all public schools reach "proficiency" (100 of 140 points) on an accountability index by 2014. This paper tries to predict which schools…

This article describes the development of Kentucky's alternative assessment for students with disabilities, including the content and scoring standards for the Alternate Portfolio. Specific examples of entries at each grade are given. Initial implementation data are presented, and critical issues in the development of alternate statewide…

This is the first report from a 5-year study of the classroom level effects of state assessment reforms. The first year examines changes in the teaching of writing and mathematics in Kentucky elementary and middle schools as a result of the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System and the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). This report…

Since 1991-92, student writing portfolios have been part of Kentucky's high-stakes performance-based assessment. A study of schools with continuously improving or continuously declining writing portfolio scores led to identification of 36 indicators of successful writing programs. These indicators were used to develop a comprehensive needs…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) is one of the most comprehensive education reform efforts attempted in the United States. This document presents an overview of factors leading to KERA's passage, its accomplishments, and areas in need of improvement. The conditions leading up to passage of KERA included disparities across Kentucky…

This commentary on "Accountability for All Students: Kentucky's Alternate Portfolio Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Cognitive Disabilities" (Kleinert and others), points out that Kentucky includes the assessment scores or results in the larger accountability system of the school and state. Noteworthy components and…

This response to comments on "Accountability for All Students: Kentucky's Alternate Portfolio Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Cognitive Disabilities" (Kleinert and others), discusses changes in the ways Alternate Portfolios are now scored and answers concerns on the inclusion of students with mild and severe disabilities…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) represents one of the most comprehensive pieces of educational reform legislation enacted in the United States. This article describes a series of unintended consequences that are the direct results of inconsistencies both between and within components of the reform. The inconsistencies have made certain…

In response to a state supreme court decision that the state's system of schooling was unconstitutional, the Kentucky legislature passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. In December, 2000, a Louisville conference brought together educators, policymakers, and researchers to discuss research findings and lessons learned during 10 years of…

This commentary on "Accountability for All Students: Kentucky's Alternate Portfolio Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Cognitive Disabilities" (Kleinert and others), discusses the convergence of the inclusion movement and school reform efforts and the ability of the portfolio assessment to facilitate the inclusion of…

This report describes the attitudes of school superintendents in Kentucky about the implementation of school reforms based on the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA); this survey also investigated changes in the perceptions of superintendents over the previous year related to the policies, programs, and practices of KERA. The study was…

This report describes what schools and educators across Kentucky are doing to implement school reform in school-based decision-making based on the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA). The School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) component of KERA is a decentralized governance structure that vests great authority in SBDM councils operating at…

This report assesses student perceptions of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Individual and focus-group interviews were conducted with approximately 100 students in 6 schools in 3 geographically different school districts across Kentucky. In addition, a brief exit interview was conducted with principals to solicit feedback concerning…

As part of a qualitative study of education reform in four rural Kentucky school districts, this report examines instructional changes that have occurred in the upper primary grades as a result of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Researchers interviewed 13 principals, 37 teachers, and 14 eighth-grade students; observed 73 teachers working…