April
27, 1999 -- (Lexington, Ky.) -- Almost a
decade into Kentucky’s sweeping school reform,
poverty remains the predominant factor determining whether
or not a school is succeeding. In a new study of the
reform, University of Kentucky political science professor
Phillip W. Roeder recommends more decentralization and
stronger evaluation to help move all public schools
ahead.
Although the
Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 created school councils as a way for parents,
teachers and principals to make their own decisions, the state’s education system
remains highly centralized, Roeder said.
"The school has to be able to decide its own fate," Roeder said. "For
example, if we have state standards and state assessment, why do we care if a school has a
school council or not?"
On the other hand, while the state evaluates the academic achievement of students with
standardized tests, it does little to evaluate why successful schools are successful, he
said.
Roeder studied the state’s 1,200 public schools and 177 school districts for his
new book, "Education Reform and Equitable Excellence: The Kentucky Experiment."
He found that public schools in Kentucky generally responded quickly to reforms such as
Family Resource Centers and Site Based Decision Making Councils and funding has become
more equal from district to district.
However, the key factors to a school’s success remain the proportion of poor
children, previous academic achievement and previous local financial resources. In other
words, schools that score best on the reform’s assessment are those that have a lower
percentage of poor children in districts with higher levels of academic achievement and
more financial resources prior to implementation of the reform.
Roeder did find exceptions -- schools with relatively high levels of poverty, yet high
levels of academic performance. He devotes a chapter of his book to an examination of
eight of those schools.
"Somehow or other, they have developed a culture of success in spite of their
disadvantages," he said.
That culture generally seems to have been created by high expectations, ties to the
community and strong, stable leadership from principals.
Roeder is a former public school teacher as well as former director of the UK Martin
School of Public Administration and former director of the UK Survey Research Center. He
is publishing his book solely in digital form, either through the Internet or as a CD-ROM.
The book is $10 if downloaded from the Internet and $20 as a CD-ROM.
