Examples from 10 Appalachian rural schools demonstrate how developing curricula around local interests builds on students' prior experience and makes education relevant, and how educational experiences that are intimately connected to one's community develop a sense of civic responsibility. Information technology enables students to see the myriad…

During 1968-91, middle schools were the only school type to grow in number, increasing by over 400 percent. Middle school advocates focus on early adolescents' need for developmentally appropriate institutions, but show only a weak historical understanding of the emergence and status of middle schools. Critical factors in early support for the…

Since changing political, economic, and social forces determine the success of educationally innovative policies, there are limitations to the idea that formal education is a field built upon scientific and technical knowledge with teachers as its expert professionals. Various strategies for improving the autonomy and control of classroom…

The "rural school problem" continues to plague current researchers, as it did school reformers of the past. There are basically two academic literatures focusing upon rural communities and their schools where rurality rather than ethnicity is the focus. The historical literature typically features tales of rural economic decline,…

Reviews key literature on rural education, 1974-98. Describes characteristics of rural schools and communities. Discusses the results of 100 years of efforts to urbanize and homogenize rural schools, and the question of whose interests should be served by rural schools. Examines ideas about the nature of appropriate rural school improvement, and…

The problems of rural students at risk of school failure and incompletion are in many ways similar to problems of urban low-income children and young people. These problems include poverty, unemployed parents, substance abuse, low self-esteem, child abuse, and sexual activity. However, children in many chronically depressed and isolated rural…

This essay considers connections between rural American life, livelihood, academics, and community. Two major areas are addressed: curricular issues in rural high schools and the nature of community and its central influence on the rural school. Historically youth who stayed in their rural community did not require preparation for higher…

Argues that the "social capital" provided to schools by parent and community involvement has been eroded in rural areas by school consolidation, centralization, and urban models, placing all rural students at risk. Traces this erosion in one rural West Virginia school district. Contains 19 references. (SV)

Outlines the primary arguments and much of the available evidence on desirable school size. Summarizes important factors in the history of U.S. school consolidation. Suggests that the key to the school size debate may be educational control rather than educational quality. Contains 39 references. (SV)

This paper presents "conjectures" about how rural students from isolated or economically declining communities may come to understand and negotiate their academic classroom experiences. In contrast to the metropolitan culture of America, such students continue to define successful living in ways that do not assume obtaining college…

Braxton County, West Virginia, is a subculture in which the norms and values of local residents are oppositional to state and national objectives for public education. Describes the role of the locally born county superintendent as a cultural change agent, and his strategies for overcoming poor community support and limited financial resources to…

This paper focuses on the political economy of public education in depressed rural regions of the United States. The general hypothesis explored is that occupational composition of the community workforce and associated educational requirements for employment are significant elements of the sociopolitical environment for public education. Part I…

This paper addresses dilemmas facing rural schooling today as a result of industrialization and the changing nature of rural communities. Examples are drawn from the literature on Maine and West Virginia schools and from the movie "Hoosiers." Although some rural communities have benefitted economically from industrialization, in most…

Discusses the nature of recent calls for educational reform in the context of the historical role of superintendents in the development of the public school movement. Provides a case study illustrating how one metropolitan school superintendent facilitated educational innovation and solidified his own organizational power within his district. (34…

This monograph draws on case studies of school-community partnership projects in four rural southeastern school districts in order to elaborate a thorough description of school contextual factors in the rural Southeast. In 1986, Appalachia Educational Labaoratory (AEL), one of nine federally funded research and development laboratories, received…