Successful provision for the curriculum needs of students in small schools in the 1980s requires design, planning, hard work, and commitment, as well as administrative leadership, involvement of the board of education, staff participation, resources outside the district, and inservice activities. (SB)

Rural school districts must cope with problems of finance, energy, teacher recruitment, and curriculum. The Pawnee Heights School District (Kansas) has dealt with all of these. Concerning finance, Pawnee Heights has taken advantage of several federal programs including CETA, Title I, Career Education, and Title III; it has filed an application for…

This document summarizes the deliberations of the Commonwealth Pacific Regional Workshop, which focused on the cost effectiveness of small schools. Advantages of small schools include equity for disadvantaged groups, opportunities for rural development, preservation of cultural traditions, and the potential for educational advantages. One task…

Details the history of Big Laurel, West Virginia from 1918-1941, 1941-1965, and 1965-1983, noting the effects on education of events in all three periods. Describes the opening, closing, consolidation, and reopening of community schools, and the construction, development, philosophy, and curriculum of the new Big Laurel School. (SB)

Educators' main concern in 1956 is with teaching in small communities rather than exclusively with teaching in one-teacher schools. The modern rural school is likely to be one which serves an entire community, usually including a hamlet, village, or small-town center and the surrounding open country area. Yet, the school tends to be small (about…

This proceedings summarizes a conference sponsored by the Center for Rural Education and Small Schools at Kansas State University. Included are the keynote speech and abstracts of 46 conference presentations. The keynote speech, "Invisible and Silent along the Blue Highways," by Patricia A. Schmuck, examines problems of ethnic, racial, and gender…

Oregon offers this guide to assist educators in establishing career education programs in small schools, K-12. Section 1 gives suggestions for promoting awareness, exploration, and preparation and lists goals for incorporating career educational concepts into all areas of the curriculum. Emphasis is placed on vocational clusters and special…

In an effort to identify and prioritize critical issues in rural education, three groups were surveyed: policy makers (N=10 national, 7 state, and 4 local); practitioners (limited to 48 school superintendents from districts randomly drawn by region, with no more than 2 to a given state); and trainers (N=48 trainers with 16 in each of the…

This book compares small schools in various countries with large ones and offers cost effective strategies for small schools. Part I focuses on social, economic, and educational issues related to small schools. Small schools are beneficial to their communities as centers of social development. In addition, small schools have a more cooperative…

This report examines the use of community-based support to facilitate curriculum renewal efforts in small rural school districts. Interviews with educators from five school districts in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington describe three approaches to curriculum renewal: community-initiated approaches, state-directed reform efforts, and…

Focusing on examination of the current status of small high schools, identification of the elements of successful programs, and formulation of a general program design, the report of the first year of the Small High Schools Project for Rural Alaska presents over 100 recommendations to help small high schools develop into effective institutions.…

Resolutions resulting from the first statewide small school conference in Utah reflect the most pressing needs and concerns faced by Utah educators and lay citizens. They deal with small school certification, inherent strengths and weaknesses, preservice training, funding, research on innovations, and technical aid on community involvement in…

Prepared by independent evaluators at the request of the Interlake Tribal Division for Schools, this report assesses the status of education in Fairford and makes recommendations for comprehensive educational improvements that would enable the community to regain local control of education. The opening sections describe the present situation,…

This bulletin tells how the boys and girls and staff of the elementary school at Culloden, West Virginia, recently took a critical look at their school program and decided that they ought to do something toward having more useful, interesting, and meaningful learning experiences. Accordingly, they began to develop a curriculum which was different…