This paper summarizes some studies designed to measure the effectiveness of reforms brought about by the Kentucky Educational Reform Act and the changes resulting from the implementation of the current assessment system, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS). Results of one study indicate that the use of the writing portfolio did…

This study examined first-year teachers' ability to assess their students. The researcher collected lesson plans submitted by each of the Kentucky New Teacher Internship Program (K-TIP) interns in one county during 1996-97 and 1997-98. The lesson plans came from 32 elementary, 11 middle, and 7 high school K-TIP interns. The researcher copied…

This study examined the lesson plans of 67 teacher interns in Kentucky to determine whether their lesson objectives were concentrated to develop higher order thinking in their students. Copies of the first lesson plans submitted by first-year teachers in one large Kentucky school system for a 3-year period (1995-98) were the data source for the…

During the internship year, every new teacher (intern) in the Kentucky Beginning Teacher Internship Program is assigned a resource teacher who serves as a mentor and model. The resource teacher is responsible for assisting the intern in instructional activities and techniques, classroom management, tests and interpretation of test results,…

This study explored views and attitudes toward full inclusion and collaboration among 43 directors and coordinators of special education in randomly selected school districts in eastern Kentucky. Although both collaboration and full inclusion were in effect in parts of each school district surveyed, results showed that only about half of the…

This study of 98 special education teachers investigated the reasons for the high attrition of special education teachers in Kentucky. The participants were asked to give three reasons (in no more than one phrase) why in their opinion special education teachers leave special education and choose to teach general education. The most common reason…

One hundred forty-three Eastern Kentucky University college students majoring in education and enrolled in an introductory education course were surveyed to determine their understanding of and knowledge about multicultural education and to discern the extent to which these students appreciated and valued multicultural education. The study also…

The purposes of the study were to: (1) identify the issues addressed at the due process hearings in this southeastern state, and (2) examine the implications for educators. Due process hearing decisions rendered since 1994, a total of 31 were reviewed. Results of the study showed that student placement was the most common issue for which a due…