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…

The report describes the settings of a case study of innovations in Burke County (North Carolina), provides a brief history of the county's educational efforts, and discusses some of the county's initiatives in education. For the research, multiple sources of data were used, including focus groups, interviews, and artifacts, such as memoranda and…

Discusses the changing nature of rurality in Canada, due to increasing urbanization, and the need to redefine rural education. School district consolidation has resulted in larger schools and loss of community. Medium-sized schools have great affiliative advantages for students. Citizens should fight for the right to construct the kind of schools…

For over 10 years, the accelerated schools movement has worked to implement a cohesive philosophy and process for change in over 1,000 schools in 41 states. This paper describes the characteristics of accelerated schools and details the influences that districts have on them. It demonstrates how districts influence the success or failure of…

An analysis and evaluation by the State of North Carolina on its effective use of technology revealed that the state was highly fragmented in the use of and access to technology; the result of this evaluation was the vision of a state-wide network that would link 3,400 sites on a state-of-the-art telecommunications system. Southern Bell created a…

Findings of a study that examined the effect of school board administrative change strategies on the degree of community opposition to school closing decisions are presented in this paper. The study is based on Kotter and Schlesinger's (1974) conceptual model that identifies six effective change strategies: education and communication,…

While it is not the intent of the paper to portray the rural school jurisdictions as completely riven and incapacitated by conflicting interests, a very strong implication emerging from studies of these school systems is that "integrative" management policies and strategies are needed to counteract the fragmentation which has been…

Most school consolidations have exercised a plan, but few have followed up with an evaluation. This report provides a history of consolidation in Ohio and a follow-up study of the last school consolidation to take place in Ohio in 1992. The study, conducted in 2000, included a survey of teachers, parents, and students to determine the success of…

The major focus of the research is to explore how the implementation stage of two local education authorities (LEA) reorganizations initiatives in England was managed at LEA and school levels. The focus is on what must be done at both of these levels to implement central-government-approved reorganization proposals so as to portray how groups at…

In rural Minnesota many school districts are limited in their efforts to restructure by low enrollment, rural geographic location, meager tax base, narrow staff experience, extensive job responsibilities for staff, restricted staff development opportunities, and lack of direction in curriculum coordination. Because of actual or perceived…

In Winnebago County, Iowa, the earliest school district was the township, organized with ungraded one-room schools. The town of Buffalo Center worked with its township school district to become, in 1895, a town independent school district with its service area being the township. In 1896 the new district offered graded elementary and high schools.…

This report describes the North Dakota School District Boundary Restructuring Program that was adopted by the 1989 North Dakota legislature in an effort to offset declining population and school enrollment in rural areas. The program provides incentive money for clusters of school districts to join together to enhance educational opportunities for…

For over 3 decades, American public secondary schools have become progressively larger. High school seniors once typically attended a school of 400 or fewer students; the majority of today's seniors graduate from a school with over 500 students. Although a 1964 Kansas study showed that small schools are superior to larger ones, James Conant's 1967…

Decreasing fiscal budgets and declining student enrollments have forced many school districts to evaluate the alternative strategies in closing certain elementary or secondary schools, either temporarily or permanently, for purposes of consolidation. For rural and other small districts, the strategy of multiple district consolidation (merger) has…

Passage in 1989 of Oklahoma's education reform bill, H.B. 1017, provided encouragement and financial rewards for use of consolidation as a reform strategy, but this approach is often met with anxiety and hostility from stakeholders. In an effort to identify strategies that facilitate consolidation, semistructured interviews were conducted with the…