Online Encyclopedia
Kentucky Education Reform Act
KERA - the Kentucky Education Reform Act was passed by the Kentucky State Legislature in 1990 in response to a ruling the previous year by the Kentucky Supreme Court that the commonwealth's education system was unconstitutional. The court mandated that the Legislature was to enact broad and sweeping reforms at a systemic level, statewide.
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The Goals of KERA
KERA was based on six goals:
- Students use basic communication and mathematics skills for purposes and situations they will encounter throughout their lives.
- Students apply concepts and principles from mathematics, the sciences, the arts, the humanities, social studies, practical living studies, and vocational studies to what they will encounter throughout their lives.
- Students develop their abilities to become self-sufficient individuals.
- Students become responsible members of a family, work group, or community, including demonstrating effectiveness in community service.
- Students think and solve problems in school situations and in a variety of situations they will encounter in life.
- Students connect and integrate experiences and new knowledge from all subject matter fields with what they have previously learned, and build on past learning experiences to acquire new information through various media sources.
The Success of KERA
Although KERA's deep systemic changes met with some controversy, most researchers agree that Kentucky Schools have experienced overall improvement in the quality of Education. Poverty in the state has diminished and college enrollment has increased. SAT scores have risen as has the number of graduating seniors.
In 1998, The Ford Foundation and Harvard University awarded Kentucky's education system the Innovations in American Government Award. The success of KERA has made it a model for education systems in other states and around the world.
Related Articles
External Links
- http://www.uky.edu/~deberti/test/kera.htm
- http://members.iglou.com/hettingr/KERA/Goals.html
- http://csef.air.org/publications/related/jsel/kera2.html
- http://www.pfks.org/edu/kera.html