The West Virginia School Building Authority has arbitrarily emphasized economies of scale as a requirement for statewide facilities funding. This requirement has forced consolidation in sparsely populated areas with resultant "diseconomies of scale" related to transportation costs, increased dropout rates, and decreased parental and…

Describes and compares five major types of college learning-community curricular models: linked courses; learning clusters; freshman interest groups; federated learning communities; and coordinated studies. Characteristics of each model are outlined concerning institution size, basic unit of instruction, number of students involved, faculty roles,…

Reviews research affirming the superiority of small schools, whether urban or rural. Includes studies on student and staff attitudes at small schools, extracurricular participation and attendance, underlying conditions that lend support for a smaller schools, and issues of equity. (HTH)

Studied efficiency differences in Finnish senior secondary schools by Data Envelopment Analysis, using four variant models. Average efficiencies in the most extensive models were 82% to 84%. Considering parents' educational level increased average efficiency to 91%. Tobit analysis showed school size did not affect efficiency. Input and output…

School variables, such as school size and school location, matter. School size and location impact many areas of education, including the characteristics of the school, curriculum, and post-school outcomes. Research reveals that students in rural schools face many personal and education hardships--from living in poverty to having less opportunity…

Five years into an eight-year study of its high school improvement efforts, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is shifting its strategy for evaluating the $1.3 billion grant program. The foundation's initiative, which is underwriting change efforts in more than 1,800 schools, is the nation's largest privately funded attempt to improve high…

With the forthcoming retirement of school foodservice directors, the increasing pressures faced by employees at home and work, and the financial constraints of school districts, recruiting and retaining skilled and diverse employees will be challenging. Marketing work/life benefits to potential employees and supporting these policies to current…

This report reviews high school dropout rates and related factors in rural high schools throughout 15 Southern and Southwestern states. These schools are in districts that are among the 800 rural districts with the highest student poverty rate nationally. Seventy-seven percent of the "Rural 800" districts and 87 percent of the students in them are…

Examines impact of school district size on academic achievement of California students. After controlling for certain student characteristics and environmental factors, including class and school size, finds that district size appears to retard academic achievement, especially the performance of middle-school students. (Contains 25 references.)…

Teachers may be the most important element of an effective school, but does that mean that K-12 improvement must wait on the ability of schools or systems to recruit, nurture, and retain outstanding teachers? Such a strategy implies that widespread excellence hinges on the ability of publicly funded school systems to attract more than 3.3 million…

This digest describes the development of the standard middle school and its impact on rural areas, discusses the original goals of middle schooling, and suggests how rural schools can meet these goals despite their small size. The earliest middle schools were innovative rural junior high schools that enriched their programs with additional…

This compilation of tables presents information on Maryland's public schools. The state's 1,254 schools include 791 elementary, 202 secondary, 175 middle, and 23 combined schools as well as 49 special education centers and 14 alternative centers. A breakdown for each type of school is given for each of the state's 23 counties and Baltimore city,…

This packet contains seven research briefs in the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's (NWREL's) "School Improvement Research Series" for 1995-96. Topical Synthesis #8, "Community-Based Learning: A Foundation for Meaningful Educational Reform" (Thomas R. Owens and Changhua Wang) summarizes lessons that NREL has learned over the past 20…

The call to restructure American education has captured the imagination of reformers across the country, yet it has not produced a coherent agenda for changing schools. This study investigates how the structure of secondary schools affects learning. Using a sample of 9,631 students in 789 U.S. high schools with 3 waves of data from the National…

This paper examines issues in rural education related to aims, curriculum, and finance. It questions the notion that educational restructuring is necessary for the purpose of improving economic competitiveness. Wigginton, a rural educator, proposes that the aims of education should be: (1) to provide a firm grounding in the basic skills; (2) to…