Small rural schools have often been characterised as being at the heart of their communities. However, there is no clarity on what that means nor on the perceived meaning of 'community' within this context. The findings of the Small School Rural Community Study focused on the relationship between small rural schools and the communities they serve…

Previous studies suggest that small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, as well as potential opportunities relating to their position within their communities. In Northern Ireland, these schools are situated within the comparatively rare context of a religiously…

Teaching is a profession with an extremely high level of turnover, especially among new teachers (See et al., 2020). Research supports that there is a correlation between job satisfaction and teachers choosing to stay or leave (Lane et al., 2019; Shibiti, 2020a). This qualitative case study sought to understand the experiences of teachers and…

School district leaders are responsible for creating strategic plans for their districts which include three-year, five-year, and ten-year plans. Prior to 1989, school district leaders anticipated student growth or decline by assessing the housing market and mobility trends in the district. In 1989, the Nebraska legislature passed a law allowing…

As more states adopt universal education savings account (ESA) programs, analysts have declared that the "final frontier" of school choice has been reached. Another choice that parents might want to make and policymakers should support as an intermediate option between private school and homeschooling is partnering with their local…

This article details the demise of a small multicultural and democratic school in a large urban district. After a successful 25-year run, a public school built on principles of progressive and democratic education was dismantled and destroyed. The article attempts to expose the contradictions and untruths in the story of Mission Hill School's…

Each year in the United States, school district officials spend significant time and effort evaluating teacher effectiveness. Teacher evaluation procedures have evolved through the years from a process by which local officials monitored teacher practices to assure conformity to one in which teachers and administrators work collaboratively using…

The research aimed to examine the components of effective academic administration involving collaborative participation from parents and the local community in small-sized schools under the authority of the Basic Education Commission. The study employed a mixed-method research approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative…

Teachers who work at small schools often do not have colleagues at their workplace who teach the same content area and therefore cannot benefit from the professional growth that comes with having same-subject colleagues in one's workplace. The purpose of this study was to see if participating in a teacher Facebook group as a Virtual Community of…

The objective of this study is twofold: 1) To examine the current situations, desired conditions, and requirements for participation in quality assurance efforts of small schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission; 2) To explore developmental guidelines for enhancing the quality assurance practices of these educational…

Racial microaggressions are at the center of a debate on experimental vs. experiential reality. This issue might come down to epistemological differences, but we must continue to amass evidence of the existence of these harmful phenomena if they indeed exist. The current study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis with a small sample of…

The objectives of this research were to: 1) exploring the components and indicators of stakeholder participation in quality assurance practices of small schools under the supervision of the Basic Education Commission, and 2) evaluating and validating these components and indicators. The research consisted of two phases: 1) conducting a theoretical…

This mixed-method study sought to find specific factors influencing teachers in small, remote, rural school districts to continue teaching or to leave their teaching position. Additionally, this study sought to identify specific things district-level administrators could do influence teacher retention rates in small, remote, rural school…

This article reports on the design of interdisciplinary units in five International Baccalaureate schools in Norway and Denmark, each with fewer than 100 students in their Middle Years Programme. The mixed methods study describes subject combinations and time frames of 37 enacted units and 111 hypothetical interdisciplinary units, and the…

While progressive education has been practiced in formal learning settings for over a century, there is a relatively limited amount of contemporary scholarship on such schools. Acknowledging the nebulous nature of this genre, my study was undertaken to identify the philosophies and practices of a contemporary progressive school. From the…