Adequacy post-Rose v. Council for Better Education in Kentucky public school facilities: A case study.

摘要

The decision in the 1989 landmark Kentucky case, Rose v. Council for Better Education, initiated many reforms to ensure that children have access to an adequate education, including funding new construction and renovations for school facilities. The purpose of this instrumental, qualitative case study is to describe how the additional state and local funding for a selected Kentucky public school facility affected the provision of an adequate education. The term adequacy is used in the study to mean the fiscal sufficiency to meet a qualitative set of achievement standards required by the state as indicated in the Rose decision. One recently renovated middle school was purposefully selected based on its relatively lower score on the Kentucky School Report. Selected features: (1) security, (2) technological readiness, (3) lighting, (4) thermal comfort and (5) air quality were examined. Interviews, facility observations including photographic images, archival and contemporaneous documents, and reflexive field notes comprised the data collection. District and school administrators, teachers, and other individuals deemed knowledgeable were selected purposefully and by the snowball method for interviews. Observations focused on the five features and their relationship to teaching and learning. Classrooms were observed without students present. Document analysis was used for contextual information about the school district and the school case. Triangulated data were analyzed in an iterative and holistic process to identify common themes. Trustworthiness of the findings was established through triangulation of data, peer debriefing, disconfirming analyses, the rich description, and field notes. The findings suggest that the additional facilities funding since the Rose decision created a teaching and learning environment that supported the tenets of an adequate education that previously had not been realized. Improvements that support an adequate education were found in three of the five features. Evidence of three additional building features emerged (the facility's auditorium renovations, added disability accessibility, and classroom renovations according to content area). Enhancements made to these three additional features added to the educational opportunities afforded to the students. The study adds to the knowledge base on outcomes of Kentucky reforms and the relationship between facilities and opportunities for an adequate education.