This phenomenological study of school consolidation is an investigation of how education policy that dictates the reorganization of schools and districts impacts educational choices, learning environments, and school culture. Although quality studies of optimal school size for promoting student achievement and cutting costs have emerged in the…

More and more legislatures are introducing program consolidation to assist districts anxious to increase flexibility and reduce fragmentation among categorical programs. To assess this strategy, findings related to efforts to achieve greater flexibility and consolidation of resources across special education, Title I, and programs for…

The movement toward small school consolidation was based in part on the presumption that academic achievement was lower in small schools, but the results of a study showed that school size was not significantly related to academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools in New Mexico. To determine the relationship of school size and…

Americans tend to value bigger as better. Conventional wisdom over the years has dictated that "too small" schools and school districts could not provide sufficient educational opportunities. Since 1930, the number of school districts has shrunk from 128,000 to less than 16,000. As districts consolidate, parents feel distant from schools and…

This paper compares the sense of belonging of students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), a boarding magnet school in rural Maine, with that of students at a rural consolidated public high school serving two towns. This type of structure is known as a Maine School Administrative District (SAD). The school is identified as SAD…

Briefly traces history of decline and resurgence of rural communities, discusses school consolidation and studies on per pupil costs, travel costs, energy conservation and community pride and identity as factors in maintaining small rural schools. (AN)

While it is not the intent of the paper to portray the rural school jurisdictions as completely riven and incapacitated by conflicting interests, a very strong implication emerging from studies of these school systems is that "integrative" management policies and strategies are needed to counteract the fragmentation which has been…

Most school consolidations have exercised a plan, but few have followed up with an evaluation. This report provides a history of consolidation in Ohio and a follow-up study of the last school consolidation to take place in Ohio in 1992. The study, conducted in 2000, included a survey of teachers, parents, and students to determine the success of…

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the comparative costs and benefits of closing small rural schools in South Australia. The cost analysis includes accounting for the use of staff, goods, and services; distance education support; land and buildings; and the opportunity cost of children's bus travel time. The assumption that children's…

Swedish non-graded small junior high schools are described and specific related problems in curriculum and staffing of rural schools are addressed in terms of policy, practice, and theory. Implications are suggested for curriculum and staffing: (1) curriculum goals and objectives cannot be treated as isolated school phenomena (they have relation…

In Winnebago County, Iowa, the earliest school district was the township, organized with ungraded one-room schools. The town of Buffalo Center worked with its township school district to become, in 1895, a town independent school district with its service area being the township. In 1896 the new district offered graded elementary and high schools.…

Decreasing fiscal budgets and declining student enrollments have forced many school districts to evaluate the alternative strategies in closing certain elementary or secondary schools, either temporarily or permanently, for purposes of consolidation. For rural and other small districts, the strategy of multiple district consolidation (merger) has…

Today, after nearly 100 years of pressure toward consolidation, communities which have resisted consolidation for the last generation are finally getting some support. Some of this support comes from simple facts and figures. There is strong evidence that centralized schools are expensive, remote from the communities they are supposed to serve,…

The main distinguishing structural or demographic feature of rural environment which alters the nature of the economics of educational service provision is sparsity of population. The paper first examines the effect of population on the unit cost of provision of educational services in rural areas at the primary school level. Second, rural school…

An overview of the history of rural school consolidation in north central Iowa reveals that by 1994, 9 of the 10 high schools in towns of less than 500 in 1940 had closed, and 3 of the 5 high schools in towns with populations of 500-999 had closed. However, all three towns with populations over 1,000 in 1940 had high schools in 1993-94. This…