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…

Massachusetts is the least rural state in the US, and its existing rural communities are shrinking. This paper examines the historical processes of urbanization, specifically through industrialization that have come to dominate and erase rural communities in the state. The capitalist mindset behind industrialization has spread to education where…

Island studies have rarely focused on the role of small schools on offshore islands. Island schools are often impacted by the decisions of national, regional and local educational authorities, particularly in today's world where diseconomic and disbenefit arguments highlight the non-viability of small schools. Such schools are seen as unable to…