The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The…

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…

Believing that their desegregation plans met court-ordered guidelines, three Arkansas school districts (Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Pulaski County) found that U.S. District Judge Woods had scrapped these plans and appointed a New York desegregation expert (Eugene Reville) in charge of the three districts. Sidebars discuss salary and court…

People in the rolling, scenic valley, between the Ozarks and Ouchita mountains have a lot in common. As of this school year, they share something else in common: a school district. The four districts that make up the newly christened Two Rivers are among 57 rural Arkansas systems that state lawmakers forced to consolidate with their neighbors.…

In 1983 the Arkansas State Board of Education adopted minimum education standards. One consequence of the legislation has been school district consolidation. From 1983 to 1999, the number of Arkansas school districts declined from 370 to 310, and consolidations are expected to continue due to the high costs of maintaining the standards and…

Consolidations come in all shapes and sizes, including mergers, annexations and dissolutions. They do not all take place under state mandate, however. A handful of districts consolidate every year in some states like Illinois that have large numbers of small districts, many of them dual districts that serve K-8 or 9-12 in the same geographic area.…

This study investigated school district size, the consolidation of small school districts to make larger ones, and the linear relationships of school district size to expense per average daily attendance (ADA), basic and composite scores on the MAT6 standard achievement test, and secondary school dropout rate. Correlational analysis revealed that…

The 1948, Arkansas School District Reorganization Act was passed in an effort to reduce the 1589 small school districts to a smaller number. Those districts not consolidated would form county districts. As of the 1967-68 school year, 26 of these county districts remained. The purpose of this study was to provide information drawing attention to…

This paper describes school consolidation in six small towns in South Nevada County, Arkansas. None of the six schools had the resources to meet the requirements of advanced programs set by the Arkansas Educational Standards Act. School boards met with each community to gather support for consolidation, discussing increased taxes to pay for a new…

In 1966, the Arkansas Education Association (AEA) presented a plan to consolidate school districts by dissolving all school districts with less than 400 students. The proposal spawned an enormous debate, and opponents organized a political action committee named the Arkansas Rural Education Association (AREA). The issues involved were: (1) the…

A study was undertaken in 32 county school districts, located primarily in rural areas, to determine the influence of rurality, financial resources, quality of education, and school performance as measured by educational level attained, on the county school district problem in Arkansas. Both case study and statistical methods were employed in the…