In recent years, the superintendent and the board have aggressively addressed the issues of high academic standards, school performance, student accountability, community engagement, equity, technology, and professional development. Read an update of education policies in Kentucky. But the district is not without its shortcomings. Insiders say financial shortfalls, racial division, and achievement gaps between black and white students have troubled Jefferson County over the years. And the multifaceted Kentucky Education Reform Act, or KERA, signed into law in 1990 after the state supreme court ruled that the entire system of public education in Kentucky was unconstitutional, has not been an easy fit in Jefferson County.
Some parents fear that it has hurt the district's performance.
The merger bolstered what were at the time bankrupt and troubled downtown schools. If the Jefferson County and Louisville schools had stayed separate, Kentuckians say, the Louisville schools would have the same, seemingly intractable problems found in urban systems in other states. The Jefferson County schools currently have a minority enrollment of about 33 percent, compared with 11 percent statewide. The district's federally mandated desegregation plan gave way in 1984 to a voluntary plan, under which, starting that year with secondary schools and in 1992 with elementary schools, county schools abandoned forced busing and adopted open-enrollment policies, magnet schools, and limited school choice programs. Today, all Jefferson County schools must have an enrollment that is between 15 percent and 50 percent black.