That dog won't hunt!: Exemplary school change efforts within the Kentucky reform

This research presents case studies of fi2ur exempla*w schools " as they worked Io meet the demands of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) as well as the ~s~yslem designed to assess resulL~--the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). We argue that the teachers ' re~Tp0nses to large-scale reform q/forts exist in a larger web of connection and are de-pendent on their collaborative and consistently positive stance toward learn-ing as well as their principal's leadership. Thus, human capital, the kJlowledge and willingness to learn on the parl o/'indivMuals, is inextricably linked to social capital, the relationships of trust and willingness to risk among school personnel. The wal ~ in which the four schools uccessfidly met the challenge o/ " KET~,,I and KIRIS was unique to each siw. Still, there were critical commonalties among the leachers: their regard.for histo ~ and Sm.'.Ll~v A. WoLv is an Associate Professor in tile School of Education at the University of Colorado at 13oulder. She is co-principal investigator of this CRESST,esearch, and was a National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. Her specializations include teqcher education, children's literature, literary response