Designed to celebrate rural teachers' inventiveness and stimulate teacher thinking about opportunities that small schools offer, this booklet is a collection of ideas and resources that have worked in specific Alaska school settings. An introductory chapter challenges teachers to use small size to advantage. Chapter 2 shows what rural teachers are…

The question of whether the market for administrators is segmented by institutional types (i.e., region, affiliation, size, mission, and resource level) was investigated. One facet of the research was the applicability of segmentation theory to the occupational labor market for college managers. Principal data were provided by career histories of…

Drawing on information from 15 sources, this literature review discusses advantages/disadvantages of small schools and summarizes practices for both rural and urban small schools to follow to maintain educational quality despite dwindling enrollments and resources. Small school disadvantages in the areas of staff, instructional program, and…

Questionnaire data underlie this analysis of the patterns of personnel availability and utilization in a sample of government schools in Australia and New Zealand. An introduction reviews research and outlines some theoretical issues relevant to school organization and resource allocation. The design and administration of the survey are reported…

Patterns of organization for summer schools were examined for 55 American and seven Canadian public four-year colleges and universities, including research universities, doctorate-granting universities, and comprehensive universities and colleges. Relationships between organizational structure and the following factors were assessed: institutional…

Questionnaires were distributed to student body presidents, building representatives of the teacher organization, principals, and school board presidents of each of 80 randomly selected Kansas high schools (with representation from each of 4 size categories) to determine how various groups affected by attendance policies perceived the…

This study was conducted through a mailed survey of randomly selected full- and part-time faculty at 15 California community colleges. Responses came from 1,302 full-time (49.3% reporting) and 1,544 part-time faculty (32.9% reporting). Respondents represented a wide range of teaching fields. Of full-time respondents, 69.3% reported seven or more…

The state of academic advisement in postsecondary education was studied through a survey of representatives of 58 colleges and universities and students who were pursuing undergraduate degrees in four-year institutions during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. About 59 percent of the institutions were public, 41 percent were private, and 22 percent had…

Participant observation techniques were used to observe and analyze a system of "informal education" practiced in a state-supported middle school of 260 students in South Yorkshire, England. "Informal education" was the term used to designate the general nature of the educational methodology of the school. The study focused…

The movement toward school consolidation was triggered by James Bryant Conant's contention that larger schools are more efficient and offer more comprehensive programs. Many studies seem to support the claim that larger schools are cheaper to operate. Yet problems with these studies include wide variation in the minimum, optimum, and maximum sizes…

Dissatisfaction with the quality of education in large elementary and secondary schools has been one of the factors leading to rediscovery of the small school in America. The question is whether small schools are truly better places for educating elementary and secondary students. Although often viewed as being essentially rural in nature, small…

Based on an examination of financial data collected from a nationwide sample of 184 two-year colleges, this five-part report facilitates the comparison of an individual institution's financial status with national averages and with averages for other colleges of the same size. Part I discusses the use of the report as an aid in comparative…

From 1975 to 1978 the National Institute of Education conducted a national survey on school crime. They assessed the incidence and seriousness of the problem, the number and location of schools affected, the costs, the means of prevention used, and the effectiveness of these means. More than 4,000 elementary and secondary schools were surveyed and…

The unique requirements of small school facilities, designed to handle multiple curricular functions within the same operational space, necessitate the creation of educational specifications tying the curriculum to that portion of the facility in which each curriculum component will be implemented. Thus, in planning the facility the major concern…

School business administration is recognized as an important component of educational administration. The current trend toward the administrative team concept of administration has added prestige and importance to the function of the school business administrator. The study reported here revealed that a large percentage of present school districts…