In this collection, eight master teachers with extensive experience in small, rural Alaska schools describe some of the ways they have adapted instruction to rural Alaskan circumstances. These papers discuss: (1) the characteristics of effective rural teachers; (2) adapting the "Coping!" curriculum for affective education to the cultural…

This position paper presents arguments countering the proposed closing of select small schools--particularly one geographically isolated school--in Randolph County, West Virginia. The first section briefly summarizes the county board of education's plan and rationale for school consolidation and the concerns of residents opposed to the school…

During the early decades of this century in rural Iowa, basketball for girls served to bring excitement and diversion in an otherwise bleak environment. It provided a chance for the girls to travel, occasionally to large cities. Playing basketball enhanced the girls' relationships with school peers and teachers and served to bring recognition and…

Three small rural school districts in Montana and Wyoming used alternate school day scheduling to make time for staff and curriculum development inservice programs. The schedule of one short and four long days delivered the instructional time of 175 6-hour days each year. Benefits of alternate scheduling included time for regular inservice…

Supporting earlier research evidence showing that participation in school activities is related to later positive cognitive, social, and personality development, the findings of this study suggest that the advantages for the well rounded development of the individual student in small schools--those graduating 150 or fewer students per year--may…

As part of an effort to identify a group of successful professionals, determine what percentage attended small secondary schools, and assess from those attending small schools their attitudes regarding the quality of education received and aspects of the experience which they felt contributed to their professional success, all 100 members of the…

This paper contests a 1985 report by the Illinois State Board of Education, which asserted that small schools are inferior and inefficient, that student achievement is significantly related to school size, and that a high school enrollment of 500-1200 students is necessary for a broad choice of academic courses and extracurricular activities. It…

Teachers for Rural Alaska is a fifth year program leading to secondary teacher certification and focusing on preparation for teaching in small village high schools with predominantly Native populations. Emphasizing a reflective inquiry orientation, the program aims to develop teachers who (1) can identify crucial problems and dilemmas in rural,…

Communications satellites transmit live interactive television broadcasts from a host site classroom to small and geographically isolated rural high schools. Using the research on effective teaching practices, this study examined the effectiveness of instruction delivered by satellite. Researchers observed 15 hours of three courses (Computer…

Across the nation, more than 2.2 million children attend 2,750 rural school districts that suffer from chronic, severe poverty. The National Rural Small Schools Task Force oversees nine regional educational laboratories as they identify and develop promising educational practices for rural, small schools. One laboratory developed a data base…

Today, after nearly 100 years of pressure toward consolidation, communities which have resisted consolidation for the last generation are finally getting some support. Some of this support comes from simple facts and figures. There is strong evidence that centralized schools are expensive, remote from the communities they are supposed to serve,…

The main distinguishing structural or demographic feature of rural environment which alters the nature of the economics of educational service provision is sparsity of population. The paper first examines the effect of population on the unit cost of provision of educational services in rural areas at the primary school level. Second, rural school…

As a partial solution to the energy crisis and to solve the problem of drastically rising operating costs coupled with less state support, in 1980-81 the Liberty School District (Spangle, Washington) implemented a 4-day school week comparable to the program used by Cimarron School District #3 in New Mexico. A survey conducted in 1975 by the…

Research into the needs of small school administrators and effective ways to help meet those needs through inservice education projects was conducted over a period of two years by means of a needs assessment and two small-scale workshops. The purpose of the workshops was to try out a basic format and some techniques perceived to be potentially…

Samples of the approximately 1,900 requests for information received by the Rural Connection (RC) between September, 1977, and November, 1978, have been selected to give the reader a general idea of the kind of career information requested by guidance counselors in small, rural schools. The requests are organized into two main categories, each…