A critique of recommendations by the Local Government Boundaries Commission (LGBC) related to improvement of rural education in Manitoba, Canada, is provided. Backed by footnotes and 12 appendices, the paper contends that the LGBC Report "fails to meet its technocratic objectives and also ignores a broad role for education in social…

Providing a directory of "new" ("free" or "alternative") schools in the United States, this publication begins with a discussion of the present educational system and what the alternative schools are trying to do about it. The criteria for inclusion in the listing, providing a glimpse of the shared philosophy of the schools, includes absence of…

The documents surveyed in this review are limited in three ways: first, in many cases only the general terms "large" and "small" are used in the discussion of school size. Second, most of the studies deal with secondary schools because there is greater concern with the extent of curriculum offerings at that level. Third, many authors draw…

Photographs, building plans, location maps, site plans, and descriptive material for 12 small elementary schools are presented in this publication. The plans presented cover physical facilities of the type and quality that are required for the successful operation of the educational programs offered by small schools. Each of these plans reflects…

Describes cooperation among rural schools as a means of improving education. Identifies benefits of cooperative programs, documents their rapid growth in the past decade, and calls for an infrastructure in which local districts, regional cooperatives, and state and national associations combine to provide optimum access to services, ideas, and…

Reports findings of survey of access to, attitudes towards, and knowledge about computers among 262 rural and 2,065 urban secondary students and 37 rural and 665 urban elementary/secondary educators. Shows rural students had more positive attitudes toward computers and greater access to computers. (NEC)

Two surveys were conducted to determine perceptions of administrators and teachers regarding the impact of Public Law 94-142 on programs for severely handicapped children in New Mexico's small, rural school districts. One year after the infusion of federal funding, 55 percent of the respondents perceived no improvement in the level of services.…

Sums up the current status of rural education research, offers explanations for the present situation, and argues for two essential steps in developing a rural research and development agenda: adoption of overarching research paradigms to guide future inquiry and consensus concerning the substantive issues to be studied. (JHZ)

Studies condition of school facilities in 223 rural and small schools in Kansas in 1984. Finds condition of facilities closely related to bonded indebtedness of the school district and replacement estimates exceeding $56 million. Discusses inability of wealth-poor districts to maintain buildings and need for legislative action on equity issues.…

Describes the background, procedure, analysis, and results of a survey of 348 K-12 teachers in western Minnesota to identify indicators of teacher burnout such as stress and job-related unhappiness among respondents. Notes widespread dissatisfaction with teaching in small rural communities, especially among men and among teachers aged 41-50. (SB)

Explains how parents and other volunteers can serve as reading teachers for elementary school children. Describes the organization, activities, and effectiveness of a parent volunteer reading program to help fifth and sixth graders in the Ruth Hill Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska. (SB)

Two decades ago, many of the strengths and advantages of small rural schools were understood. These include a greater sense of community, which enables closer relations between faculty and administration, between teachers and students, and among teachers; less violence; better school-community relationships; more parent participation; greater…

This autobiography relates the early teaching experiences of Kentucky teacher and author Jesse Stuart (1906-1984). Barely 17 years old, he first taught in a one-room, isolated rural school in eastern Kentucky for $60 a month. His 35 barefoot students in the eight grades ranged in age from 5 to 20 years. The students' passion for learning…

This proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) contains 28 keynote addresses and conference papers. Major conference themes were vocational education and training (VET) in rural schools, small schools, flexible rural delivery systems, and the community as a resource and…

Small rural schools have always had an important place in the educational life of New Zealand, but they have faced a number of challenges in the past decade. These challenges include difficulty in attracting and retaining high quality teachers, changing expectations of parents, decreasing rural population, and the impact of national educational…