Recent influxes of baby boomers coupled with state reforms reducing student-teacher ratios are stretching the limits on available school facilities across the country. Several aspects of the school facilities issue are covered in question-and-answer format; (1) What is the current status of aging school buildings? (2) What are the financial…

Many facilities in American public schools are in disrepair, a situation negatively affecting the morale, health, and learning of students and teachers. Many schools postpone repairs during tight financial times to pay for academic programs. Some school officials and communities are pursuing innovative, grassroots solutions to maintaining school…

State policies greatly affect the decisions rural districts make about building or renovating school facilities. State, federal, and local mechanisms for funding school facilities are briefly described. Some states require a specific percentage of growth or decline in student population or a minimum number of students as a prerequisite for…

This Digest examines school districts' efforts to reap the greatest benefit from smaller classes. Although the report discusses teaching strategies that are most effective in small classes, research has shown that teachers do not significantly change their teaching practices when they move from larger to smaller classes. Smaller classes mean…

This digest in Spanish examines school districts' efforts to reap the greatest benefit from smaller classes. Although the report discusses teaching strategies that are most effective in small classes, research has shown that teachers do not significantly change their teaching practices when they move from larger to smaller classes. Although…

This digest examines the problem of upgrading rural school facilities, focusing on specific rural issues, conditions that interfere with teaching and learning, and new funding approaches. Almost half of U.S. public schools are in rural areas and small towns. Close rural school-community relationships may make it easier to make decisions,…

This digest briefly reviews the current movement to downsize urban schools to help educators decide whether and why to pursue such a move, and to indicate which models appear most promising. Research evidence is strong that small schools benefit the entire school community. Small schools are particularly beneficial for disadvantaged youth, who…

A Local Area Network (LAN) allows computing equipment to share information from any device on a network with other devices on the same network. Uses for LANs in schools include sharing printers and programs, centralized file sharing, access to library databases and catalog, cost-effective connection to external networks, electronic mail, school…

Although evaluation plays many roles in schools--support for administrative decision-making, curriculum improvement, staff development, public relations, instruction, counseling, diagnosing problems for students and staff, planning--recent studies of school district evaluation practices indicate that little overall consistency exists in the form…

School reorganization has been used extensively as a strategy to deal with the problems of small and rural schools. However, there is no comprehensive evidence to prove that consolidation has met the problems of finance, staff, facilities, and curriculum for which it has been advocated, nor are consolidation's disadvantages and ill-effects of the…

Research on microcomputers in education suggests that this new technology may be widening the gap between rich and poor schools and talented and underachieving students. Public schools in poor districts and small parochial schools are the least likely to own computers. One survey indicates that while 66 percent of affluent school districts have…