More than 7 out of 10 public high schools of all types in the United States today are located in rural centers of less than 2,500 population. The problems of providing education for all rural youth through the small high schools in these areas are manifold. Significant progress is being made, but there is much ahead that needs to be done. This…

Outlines four stages of group development in the classroom (Inclusion and Membership, Establishing Shared Influence and Collaborative Decision Making, Pursuing Individual and Academic Goals, Self-Renewal: Adapting to Changes), exercises to facilitate each stage, and the teacher's role throughout. (LC)

A 1981 needs survey distributed to 587 superintendents (37.5 percent returned) of all small (1,000 students or less) K-12 Texas school districts shows lack of money to be the most critical need. A critical teacher shortage (especially in mathematics and science) and curriculum development and supervision are other important concerns. (LC)

The author recommends that teachers receive a strong liberal education followed by a two-year postbaccalaureate training program. In addition, the schools must be reorganized to include hierarchically structured teams of teachers headed by those with even further professional training and higher pay. (Author/JM)

Schoolwide literacy--the teaching of reading, writing, speaking, and thinking practices in all content areas--is generally considered an effective, even necessary, approach to addressing the learning needs of adolescents. In early college high schools, which blend high school and college for students who are underserved in higher education, the…

This analysis examined the percentage of teachers, both full-time and part-time, who left teaching positions, either to teach in other schools or to pursue other occupations. The study used data from the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey, a national survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Findings included the…

This source book brings together research about improving the ways that learning, teaching, and schooling are organized, and how school and school district size may affect such efforts. Six scholars were commissioned to address the questions of how to define quality in education; how school and district size are related to educational costs and…

The four issues of the journal SKOLE published in 1997 contain articles, personal narratives, and interviews about small alternative schools, home schooling, educational history, the deficiencies of public education, and educational philosophy and innovations. Major articles include: "The Creatures They Are: Children Becoming Their Nature" (about…

A group of 442 New York district jurisdictions (which are overwhelmingly rural but have some "metropolitan" county locations) with 2,500 or fewer pupils are subdivided by size (1,100 or fewer pupils, 210 rural or metropolitan sites; 1,100-2,500 pupils, 212 rural or metropolitan sites; and 20 small city or metropolitan sites of 2,500 or…

In 1989, in response to declining enrollments and the smallest average school size in the nation, North Dakota legislation provided incentive payments to consortia of four or more school districts that voluntarily collaborated in program planning and implementation. Participating districts were required to vote on a reorganization proposal after 3…

An innovative, flexible scheduling technique for advanced levels of a foreign language program is described. The technique, predicated on individualized pacing and continuous progress, is generalizable to all elective programs, and offers a workable solution to satisfy the enrollment "numbers game" and to lend breadth and depth to the curricula of…

Many schools across the United States have been using distance learning technologies to help them meet new state-mandated curriculum requirements. Distance learning refers to the live, simultaneous transmission of a master teacher's lessons from a host classroom or studio to receive site classrooms in distant locations. Schools with the most to…

The Kansas State Energy Curriculum Institute (KSECI) was conducted for 2 weeks in June 1984 at Kansas State University, Manhattan, and was attended by nine rural elementary teachers from northeast Kansas. The program included the dissemination of energy curriculum materials, field trips, guest speakers, media production, and other energy education…

School reorganization has been used extensively as a strategy to deal with the problems of small and rural schools. However, there is no comprehensive evidence to prove that consolidation has met the problems of finance, staff, facilities, and curriculum for which it has been advocated, nor are consolidation's disadvantages and ill-effects of the…

Any conclusions that community education concepts are "alive and well" were not supported in a study of the impact of state education policies on rural school districts with total enrollments of 350 students or less in the Great Plains Region (Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota). Survey…