The mission of all primary schools includes offering all pupils educational quality and equality. Municipalities struggle with the negative consequences of school segregation, and some local councils decide to implement extensive changes in their school organization to offer all pupils equal opportunities. This study analyzes the experiences of…

For close to fifty years, rural and non-metro counties in New York State have suffered economic and demographic declines. This paper examines the impact of urban-normative educational reform efforts on one community, and the continued crisis emerging after the consolidated district closed the elementary school. Using Discourse Analysis, two sets…

State schooling is currently transforming Tibetans' perceptions and everyday experiences in Western China. Based on interviews with rural Tibetan parents and grandparents, and using subjectification as an analytical concept, this paper argues that schooling, alongside socio-economic changes, powerfully shapes the subjectivities of Tibetan parents…

This study examined the impact that PLCs, communication, and the playbook had on a kindergarten through Grade 5 school merger in a suburban attendance zone. This merger involved two former elementary schools in the southeastern United States. The school merger created a new school model with a pre-K through Grade 2 school and a Grade 3 through…

Many urban districts use a portfolio management model, hoping to promote school choice and improve school performance. This model requires school closure, which has predominantly impacted lower income families. In 2013, Chicago Public Schools relocated Granger Elementary into one of 48 schools it closed, placing its middle-class parents in the…

This qualitative case study is focused on one high-performing urban elementary school that worked to address inequities within the school and community for two decades partly through dual language education. This neighborhood public school has been one of the district's highest-performers for the prior 15 years, was one of the first schools in the…

Based on research involving 177 primary and secondary schools spread over thirty-eight counties in six provinces (including one autonomous region), this article explores and analyzes four modes used in rural school consolidation in China. These four modes are: complete amalgamation, annexation, crossover, and centralization-decentralization.

This paper presents a case study of the microeconomy of a typical underdeveloped village in southwest China and the role of elementary education in the village economy. The paper begins with a brief review of relevant theories on the economics of education and the current social conditions and state of education in the village under study, and…

This study examined whether or not enrollment, poverty rate, and district type could be used to predict cost and achievement, as measured on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test and Prairie State Achievement Exam, at the building and district levels within the state of Illinois. This study provides quantitative data that will aid educational…

Rural school consolidation has significantly changed the landscape of rural education in China. Based on a study carried out in nine provinces, this article analyzes the effect of this policy initiative. It has led to increased school dropout rates in rural schools.

With the advancements of nine years of universal compulsory education, the development of China's basic education has resulted in new demands aimed at improving the overall quality of basic education in rural areas. Closings and consolidation are important measures in this regard. In the process of merging and consolidation, the construction of a…

Based on investigations in six midwestern provinces/autonomous regions, Hubei, Henan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia, this article analyzes the reasons for problems in the process of consolidating rural schools and their solutions.

We examine the impact of primary school mergers on academic performance of students using a dataset that we collected using a survey designed specifically to examine changes in the academic performance of students before and after their schools were merged. We use difference-in-differences and propensity score matching approaches and demonstrate…

This qualitative study was designed to examine the processes and practices that occurred before, during and after consolidation of the four elementary schools in the Great Local School district with the goal of developing a conceptual framework to be utilized by school districts that plan on implementing a school consolidation or reconfiguration.…

There is no denying that combining two schools, or even opening a new school, is loaded with challenges and frustrations as well as high expectations. Principal Tracy Shafer saw a rural school consolidation as an opportunity to use professional development to create a community focused on student learning, meeting the need for high-quality…